A couple of weeks ago, the Windows Insider team decided to pause app updates for Windows 10 native apps for Windows Insiders in the Fast and Slow Rings. As the team explained, this was intended to improve the quality of inbox apps that will ship with the Fall Creators Update in September.

While this decision is understandable, the situation remained a bit confusing for Insiders who recently saw some features disappear and then come back with app updates over the past few days. According to Windows Insider Chief Dona Sarkar, this is all because a targeting issue caused Fast and Slow Ring Insiders to receive updates for the Photos, Groove Music, Movies and TV and Paint 3D apps by mistake. Sarkar shared more details about what happened in the Feedback Hub today.

#WindowsInsiders: we found an issue with our app flighting capabilities and have now fixed it: https://t.co/526VQ0fxFi

— Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) August 3, 2017

“Because it is critical that Insiders are experiencing the same versions of the inbox apps that will be released as the default for all Windows customers when we release the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, we are releasing updates to the inbox apps that restores them to what they were previously,” explained Sarkar.” This means that Insiders may notice some new features and capabilities disappear again temporarily until we officially resume flighting app updates to the Fast and Slow rings.”

Sarkar said that all Windows 10 stocks apps should be affected by this change and receive updates to bring back things as they were. Here is what you can expect:

• For Photos, Insiders will notice the loss of features like video editing and search.
• For Groove Music, Insiders may notice the loss of the Top Music Video Gallery and Mini-View features. If you are signed in and have more than 100 local playlists, playlists beyond 100 will be lost. Any playlist that has been created and not synced to the cloud will be lost.  All music will need to be re-grovelled and re-matched, a process that could take up to an hour depending on collection size.
• For the Movies & TV app, Insiders may notice a loss of some UX improvements such as spacing reduction, scrolling headers, and other usability improvements as well as better support for personal videos on SD cards, share functionality from trailer browse, and defaulting to maximized full screen for video playback. Any purchases will need to re-synced to your PC. Uncompleted downloaded rentals will need to be manually executed via File Explorer (they’ll show as expired within Movies & TV).
• For Paint 3D, Insiders will notice the loss of Line and Curve and ability to Save/Load .glB files as well as some other smaller UX changes. Insiders will be unable to open any saved projects created while they had the newer build of Paint 3D.

This shouldn’t affect Fast Ring Insiders who recently chose to “skip ahead,” and as a result opted in to receive Redstone 4 builds as well as app updates for Windows 10 stock apps. As for Windows Insiders on the Release Preview Ring, they should also keep receiving updates as usual.

After being out of the gaming market for so long, it seems like Microsoft’s Kinect was made to be an artistic piece of hardware. For years now, we’ve been seeing artists use Kinect sensors to do all sorts of things – none of them involved with the Xbox. The latest artist to use the Kinect is Alison Wonderland, who’s spoken to Microsoft about how she uses Microsoft technology in her shows.

Regardless of whether or not you like electronic music, Alison Wonderland’s performances are off the wall – and she owes the latest visual tricks in her performance to Microsoft. Watching the new promotional video and reading Microsoft’s accompanying piece, you’ll find that the DJ and her team are putting together something truly spectacular.

It’s another example of how Microsoft’s technology is being used in unexpected ways to do things it was never meant for. The Kinect was made to be a gaming peripheral, but as it was tossed out by the gaming community, other inventive people were able to pick it up and use it to do some truly fantastic things. Here’s hoping that Alison Wonderland’s new tour – starting on August 5th – will run without a hitch.

Using a word processor is handy until you start to wonder why exactly half of your project is underlined with red squiggly lines. Jacob Brogan from Slate online magazine believes that Microsoft Word isn’t teaching people how to write better. In fact, the argument in their article is that Microsoft’s favorite word processor is making matters worse overall.

Brogan’s history of teaching college-level writing gives him an interesting perspective on Word’s goal. The job is to teach impart dictations of how writing should be approached, hosting general rules of thumb that good writers use as mandatory. In some of the examples provided, Brogan analyzes that Microsoft Word’s ‘corrections’ often create more problems than they fix.

Especially when Microsoft claims that Word’s features provide an accurate analysis of submitted text. However, Brogan points out that the suggestions provided by Word’s corrections not only confuse grammatical objects of the sentences but just produces more errors to fix in retaliation.

If there’s one thing that makes Word’s grammar and style tools frustrating, it’s this insistence on unneccessary fixes that produce worse problems. Despite its hatred for the adverb “actually,” which it consistently tries to strike from sentences, Word’s grammar checker is the mansplainiest of all digital assistants, butting in even when it has no idea what it’s talking about. Lest you imagine that I was overselling the program’s distaste for “actually,” here’s an image showing that it sometimes flags the word even when you’re talking about the word itself:

In his example, Microsoft Word actually tries to get him to delete the word ‘actually’ completely, leaving even more grammatical errors in its wake. Even though Microsoft is working to improve its word processing with the more recently announced Editor with its fancy machine learning, Brogan notes that it will also make unnecessary changes such as replacing ‘the majority of’ with ‘most’.

Like many, hassling with Word has been so conflicting in most regards that experienced writers at this point just turn the feature off. Do you believe Microsoft Word is putting semantics before good writing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

There has been a long running narrative of Microsoft being the functionally uncool software provider for a large portion of the tech industry; a title well warranted after providing the software bits to millions of nondescript beige workstations over the years.

Microsoft’s seemingly negative perception has helped fuel many a fanboy war where sides declare their platform of choice victorious while often unanimously deriding Microsoft’s efforts.

However, Microsoft may have found a reprieve from its long standing and seemingly negative public perception as a younger generation comes to associate the company with great cloud solutions.

Two teen tech entrepreneurs were recently interviewed by Geekwire about their experiences within an industry lead by likes of tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Geekwire sat down with Atul Ajoy after he attended Microsoft’s Build conference this year as well as Michael Royzen who managed to snag a seat WWDC as well. Ajoy, a tenth grader with his own startup called Chromata, and Royzen, a senior and CEO of his own company called Mlab Technologies are but two in a sea of thousands that are beginning to see that perception and reality can be deciphered by the end results of a company’s efforts.

“Microsoft’s really relevant today because not only do they care about their first-party applications, but their cloud platform Azure and then other services that they provide really help third-party companies — even my own startup — to get started and build products that anyone in the world can use,” Ajoy said. “Microsoft doesn’t get enough credit for this, but they’re doing a lot of cool things that enable the next generation of technology.”

With a clear focus on cloud powered solutions such as Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality platform or artificial intelligence, Royzen and Ajoy are beginning to see a divergence amongst what was previously cool and what could be in the future.

“Apple, I think is a very different company,” he said. “Apple is mostly a hardware company that’s focused on selling to consumers. They really ride waves of popular culture.” One notable difference, as he pointed out, is that Apple is doing machine-learning processing on-device vs. in the cloud.

Ironically, lost in all of this hullabaloo is the fact that the two young men diversify their portfolios to include AWS as their storage solution while praising Azure and the ease of use, rapid release schedules and features its cloud solutions.

Fortunately for Microsoft, the next wave of computing is less about the beige workstation and more about providing platforms and services that feed into the smartphones, smart homes and interactive displays that encompass our lives.

Today is Thursday, which means Microsoft has just added new titles to the Xbox One Backward Compatibility catalog. Entering the catalog this week are Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl. As always, you can find the descriptions, download links, and trailers for these links below.

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two $19.99

Unleash the power of the brush in an all new co-op adventure. Join Mickey and Oswald in an epic battle to save the magical world of Wasteland and change it forever. Interact with your favorite characters like never before in the most heroic adventure yet.

Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl  $9.99

Join aliens ToeJam and Earl in their adventures across space in classic titles ToeJam & Earl™ and ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron™!This classic journey of two funky aliens has been updated for release on Xbox LIVE Arcade! Earn all new achievements, complete challenging new game trials, and take on zany Earthlings with a friend in two player co-op across Xbox LIVE!

Last week, Microsoft added Tomb Raider Underworld, Raiden IV, and two other titles to the backward compatible catalog. There are now over 400 backward compatible titles to play on the Xbox One, so be sure to look for those old Xbox 360 discs!

Since we first reported on the recent Xbox spam problem last week, the problem has only gotten worse with more and more Xbox Live users being followed and messaged by automated spambot accounts. This has resulted in an increasing number of users taking to social networks and sites such as Reddit to voice their concerns and it’s gotten so bad that a new Reddit mega thread has been created for users to talk about the issue. It currently has over 3,000 comments.

The first post states that Microsoft is aware of the issue (how could they not be) and gives some good advice that people should adhere to such as not clicking on any links these account send you and to report the messages that you receive. It might seem like basic advice but the fact remains that people use these bots because they do actually work on many users who aren’t as tech-savvy as we would all hope.

How many fake accounts have followed or messaged you? Let us know in the comments below.

NHL 18 is now in open beta on the Xbox One console until August 8th. Participants in the open beta will be able to play the new 3-on3 matches as well as the improved online mode.

Interested gamers can register for the open beta by downloading the NHL 18 Beta package on the Xbox One but the official announcement does state that not everyone is guaranteed access. As with all beta’s this open beta is primarily being done to test the game and features and the number of players on at any one time is likely being limited for technical reasons.

NHL 18 is due for release on September 18th. Here’s the official description:

EA SPORTS NHL 18 delivers the creativity of today’s young NHL with new Creative Attack controls and the first-ever Defensive Skill Stick. Play the fast-paced, arcade-inspired 3-on-3 EA SPORTS™ NHL® THREES mode, or reshape the league entirely with the new Expansion Draft and your own custom 32nd NHL team. Do it all with the most co-op and competitive multiplayer options ever delivered in an EA SPORTS NHL game.

Pre-order NHL 18 on Xbox One

Do you like partaking in open betas? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft today released Windows 10 build 16257 for Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. Though the build comes with new features such as support for Tobii’s Core eye tracking, it also improves other core areas of the operating system such as Microsoft Edge, and Windows Defender. Here is what you need to know.

Microsoft Edge Improvements:

• We’re giving Microsoft Edge a refreshed and more modern look in the browser frame, inspired by the Fluent Design System. The use of Acrylic material provides depth and transparency to the tab bar and other controls, and we’ve improved button animations to feel more responsive and delightful.”
• Based on your feedback we’ve adjusted the design of the address bar so now even if the address bar isn’t in focus to start with when you click and drag the text it will remain under the cursor. Previously the text would shift as the “https://” appeared – this change will make it easier to quickly edit parts of the URL.
• We fixed an issue where right-clicking on an image in Microsoft Edge and selecting copy then later pasting the clipboard content would result in the image URL being pasted rather than the image itself.
• We fixed an issue where if a tab had been opened while Microsoft Edge was in full screen mode, using Ctrl + W to close that tab while still in full screen mode would close the content but leave the tab in the frame.
• We fixed an issue where if you had two unrelated tabs in Microsoft Edge and opened a link from the first in a new tab, the new tab would appear to the right of the second tab rather than the first.

Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) Improvements:

• We have added new status strings to the WDAG splash dialog to provide more information about the startup stages for WDAG. These new strings will be displayed to users when WDAG is starting up and when it’s being resumed from a paused state.
• We have also made significant improvements to container launch times by optimizing background preparation of the WDAG container.
• We fixed a number of issues that were impacting networking inside the WDAG container as well as a poor user experience when connecting to the WDAG container.
• Fixed an issue where the WDAG launch resulted in Error Codes 0x02 / 0x00 or 0x02 / 0c.
• Fixed an issue where only part of the WDAG window was being displayed after launch.
• Added a registry key to allow users to optimize WDAG launch times during active browsing by not suspending the WDAG container when the WDAG window is closed. You can set the registry key to optimize for performance here: Computer\HKLM\Software\Microsoft\HVSI\, Value name: SuspendOnContainerClosed, REG_DWORD, Value data: 1.
• Note: Setting this key will result in the container not pausing and the container will not release committed memory.

#WindowsInsiders: fueled by cake, we're releasing 16257 for PC & 15237 Mobile to the Fast Ring: https://t.co/mteUBdPy8j

— Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) August 2, 2017

Input Improvements:

• We’ve improved the performance of launching the touch keyboard after tapping the touch keyboard button in the taskbar.
• We fixed an issue where using WIN+H to dictate into a UWP app’s text field wasn’t working.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the Japanese IME prediction candidates position being shifted and overlapping with typed text if you set the page zoom level to something other than “100%” in Microsoft Edge.
• We’ve adjusted the design of the Japanese curve-flick touch keyboard to display numbers and English letter keys in a smaller font that’s more consistent with the size of the Japanese character keys.

As you can tell, Microsoft is working to improve the core areas of the operating system before the Fall Release of the Windows 10 Creators Update. It’s best to keep the feedback coming to Microsoft, as it will only help make things more stable in future build.

HP has unveiled a new Point-Of-Sale (POS) terminal, which is going to be running off of Windows 10. The new POS is called ElitePOS, and it’s something that both HP and Microsoft seem to be quite proud of. You can take a look at the press-release regarding the POS right here, although if you’re looking for Microsoft’s take on the announcement, you would be better served looking here. ]

Check out @HP's new retail POS system powered by #Windows10: The HP ElitePOS. https://t.co/zsWEHnpIr2 pic.twitter.com/GmtDqqbxR0

— Microsoft Partner Innovation (@MSPTNR_Innovate) August 2, 2017

While most of you won’t be interacting much with this particular piece of technology in the near future, it’s still a pretty bit of hardware to look at. It’s a sleek terminal with a touchpad and an interface that makes use fairly simple. Also, outlined in Microsoft’s blog post is the vast array of security features it provides, including a self-healing BIOS, a bolt-to-counter configuration, Windows Hello integration and more.

Along with HP’s continued efforts with Windows Phone, the company seems to be one of Microsoft’s most productive partners in this day and age.

For the first time in twenty years, Microsoft is updating the Windows console with more legible colors. Windows 10 preview build 16257 rumored to be available later today should include the overhaul of the legacy color scheme.

The Verge reports that an official Microsoft blog has been shared early, but the link has since been removed. Through the magic of caching, however, the blog was recovered.

The legacy default scheme was not built for modern displays and does not render as well on newer high-contrast LCD displays. This is particularly apparent with deeply saturated darker colors like blue.

The new default colors will modernize the look of the Windows Console and make it more congruent with other terminal experiences, such as the integrated terminal in VSCode.

A clean install of Windows 10 with the new build will show the new default colors, but simply upgrading will not affect them. Microsoft says that this is because they don’t want to overwrite any existing custom color settings.

We’ll keep our eyes out for Windows 10 Preview build 16257 and more information as it comes.

As far as most industry observers are concerned, Microsoft’s mobile efforts began and ended with the admittance of Windows phones inability to garner a significant developer community leading to its inevitable demise

However, Microsoft is looking to make newer mobility moves in a far more subtle way and it is doing so by rolling out Azure AD sign-in experience to the public.

As part of the roll out, Azure AD & Microsoft account sign-in experiences to a public preview brings a redesign of the account sign in pages that are more “consistent in look and feel.” Users will also be introduced to new prompts based on the company’s telemetry that is designed to encourage a higher success rate of use and authentication.

The Azure team is recommending businesses already using older versions of Microsoft account sign-ins to prepare for the changes coming down the pipe by doing the following checks:

Check to see that your existing company branding, if configured, works well with the new layout

Any company branding you currently have configured will be carried forward to the new UI: sign-in image, banner logo, username hint, sign-in page text and background color. However, the opaque white box in the middle of the new design might obscure the subject focus of your existing image. If you need to make any changes, you can make them in the “Company branding” pane in the Azure Portal.

Verify automation that runs on the sign-in page
Since sign-in is now done over two screens, any existing automation might break. Do a quick test and update your code if necessary.

Update documentation and training material

Documentation containing screenshots and step-by-step guides for signing in might have to be updated to explain the paginated flow and show the new UI.

While it’s not a shiny new piece of hardware, businesses and online services may appreciate the public preview of Azure AD and Microsoft Account more as Microsoft looks to modernize the experience.

Team collaboration tool Slack continues to improve with each update. The chat based communication app on Windows PC is reporting a new update up to version 2.7.0 with a new feature: pausing downloads. The simple addition is an important one, letting users pause and resume downloads at will instead of having to cancel the item altogether.

Here is the Slack 2.7.0 for Windows PC changelog:

What’s New

• File downloads are now pausable and – in perhaps a master stroke of matchmaking – resumable too.
• A bevy of changes to make the app more keyboard navigable.
• We’ve adjusted the app icon, but just a skosh. Putting our best foot forward.
• Should the worst happen and the app fail to load, you’ll see a less dreadful error page and perhaps even a code you can share.

Fixed

• On Windows 7, notifications have been made more reliable, at the expense of a preference: you’ll no longer be able to customize their position on-screen.
• On Windows 10, we’ve negotiated a truce between notifications and your antivirus. This will keep notifications appearing in a timely manner. They’ll play whatever sound you’ve told them to play more reliably, too.
• The team sidebar is no longer touch-challenged. Tap, flick, and drag teams to your heart’s content.
• Cancelling a running download is 38% less crashy. For when you decide you didn’t need that third gif after all.
• We spliced some wires we shouldn’t have, causing a loading screen to flash briefly after signing into a team. Now it’s as it should be.
• Those little white dots in the team sidebar that let you know when you have messages to read? They’re no longer obscured when the app is maximized.

The update is live for both Windows Store and Windows desktop versions.

Some changes are coming to Minecraft, and Mojang recently took to their blog to update Minecraft fans on what they need to know before things take effect. Most importantly, it was revealed that starting with the Better Together Update, a Xbox Live sign-in will be required for all online multiplayer play.

Since the Better Together update will be joining together various platforms, the changes are all part of moves to ensure everyone has a positive and safe experience on Minecraft. Mojang is also inviting Minecraft players to share ideas and submit feedback about these new rules and experiences by visiting their website. Here is a look at a few of the online play changes which Mojang have highlighted:

• Starting with the Better Together update, you’ll need to have a free Xbox Live gamertag of your own to connect to online multiplayer experiences, whether that’s a Realm, an official server partner or a hosted Minecraft world via an IP address.
• Because everyone you’ll meet online in Minecraft will have their own gamertag too, you can add new friends, or mute, report or block someone, right from the pause menu in-game.
• Now you can with new player permissions which you can manage right from the game. You can set custom permissions for each player in your world or Realm, or use pre-set permissions levels.
• Chat Filters: On our official server partners – CubeCraft, InPvP, Lifeboat and Mineplex – there are some additional filters for email addresses and numbers, including phone numbers and ages.

Several changes are also coming to the way which servers are handled and monitored. These changes bring several moderation tools which will help protect Minecraft players.

• Each of our server partners work with a fantastic team of volunteers to keep an eye out for bad behavior, including bullying and cheating, and help report issues.
• At our request, our official server partners – CubeCraft, InPvP, Lifeboat and Mineplex – have removed private messaging, including the /tell command, to allow more thorough moderation across all parts of the server.
• Each server partner includes their own expanded word filter list to make their server experience friendly for all ages.

These changes come after many news outlets reported that child predators have been using Minecraft to lure young children into sharing personal information and explicit photos. The requirement of an Xbox Live Gamertag in the Minecraft Better Together Update will help to prevent this, and will open access to more privacy, chat, and sharing settings which parents can enable for their children.

Microsoft is looking to build a deeper relationship with their external law firms by cutting out the hourly billing, according to a recent blog post from David Howard. The Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel shared on LinkedIn that the tech giant is leaning towards alternative fee arrangements and is hoping to move 90% of their law partners to the new method within the next two years.

With the beginning of our fiscal year on July 1, we have introduced Microsoft’s Strategic Partner Program, a new type of relationship with the law firms which will be handling most of our most important legal work. While we always want to ensure that we are paying a fair price for our legal work, our primary goal with this program is to get (and give!) more value with our law firm relationships.

The Strategic Partner Program designed to create deeper relationships is an effort to encourage higher quality law firm practices instead of lower rate competition and poor quality. Microsoft intends to work with firms on a retainer basis, promote open forums with advisors, and pay fair prices that don’t interrupt the expected quality of a law firm.

The goal will also coincide with the Law Firm Diversity Program, encouraging a more diverse availability to minority representation. The following firms will be part of the Strategic Partner Program within the year:

• Arent Fox
• Covington & Burling LLP
• Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
• Fish & Richardson P.C.
• Greenberg Traurig, LLP
• K&L Gates LLP
• Latham & Watkins LLP
• Merchant & Gould P.C.
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
• Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
• Perkins Coie LLP
• Sidley Austin LLP
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

“Firms were not only more open to discussing work on an alternative fee basis, many are embracing it,” he assured. Howard also noted that the bidding process will drive competition with prices and keep the law firms fair on significant matters, particularly when deciding which will represent the company.

 

Slime Rancher, a life simulation video game from indie developer Monomi Park launched yesterday on Xbox One, Windows and macOS, and the game is currently free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The indie title has been positively received by gamers so far (the Xbox One version currently has 4.5 stars rating on the Xbox store), and the simultaneous Steam release made many players wonder if the game could eventually launch on the Windows Store with Xbox Play Anywhere support.

Fortunately, the indie developer confirmed last week on Twitter that the Windows Store version of the game is actually in development, and it should support Xbox Play Anywhere:

The plan is that Slime Rancher will eventually be a Play Anywhere title but not on Aug 1. It is still in development.

— Monomi Park (@monomipark) July 25, 2017

The developer didn’t share an ETA for the Windows Store release, but we’ll let you know if we learn more details in the coming weeks. If you already tried Slime Rancher on your Xbox One, let us know in the comments if you’re looking forward to play it on your Windows 10 PC too.

Titanfall 2: Ultimate Edition is now available to buy and download on the Xbox One. This new version of the game contains the full base Titanfall 2 video game but also all of the content released in the previously released Digital Deluxe Edition and the Jump Start Pack which unlocks a variety of in-game content and skins. Here’s the full official breakdown of what’s included:

The best way to jump into one of the most surprising shooters of 2016 is with the Titanfall™ 2 Ultimate Edition. Not only do you get access to all of the content included in the Digital Deluxe edition, this bundle also includes a Jump Start Pack which instantly unlocks all Titan and Pilot classes and arms you with the funds, Double XP tokens AND a custom warpaint skin for the R-201 Carbine all to get you up to speed on the Frontier. Ultimate Edition includes Titanfall™ 2 base game, Deluxe Edition content (Scorch & Ion Prime Titans, Deluxe Edition Warpaint for 6 Titans, Deluxe Edition Camo for all Titans, Pilots & Weapons, Deluxe Edition Nose Arts for 6 Titans, Deluxe Edition Callsign), and Jump-Starter content (All Titans unlocked, all Pilot tacticals unlocked, 500 tokens to unlock loadouts, cosmetics and gear, 10 2x XP tokens, the Underground R-201 Carbine Warpaint).

Buy Titanfall 2: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One

Titanfall 2 is a relatively new first-person shooter video game and has received positive reviews from players and critics. Its level variety and James Cameron-esque single player story mode in particular have garnered a lot of acclaim.

Are you a Titanfall fan? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft will be rolling out an update to its Microsoft Teams service over the next few days which will enable a variety of new admin features relating to apps (i.e. connected experiences) within Teams.

“Put simply, there will be three new controls that will allow you to manage in detail which third party apps can be used in Microsoft Teams,” Microsoft’s Luis Carrasco states in a blog post. “As an admin, you can choose to allow or block all third-party apps, individually choose which apps to allow or block, choose what happens as new apps get submitted into the Microsoft Teams app catalog.”

As part of this update, the Tabs and Bots will be renamed Apps and admins will immediately be able to enable or disable an app, allow or block all third-party apps, and sideload external apps for testing without submitting them to the Teams app catalog.

Have you been waiting for this functionality? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft Ultimate Word Games (previously Wordament) has updated on Windows 10 PCs to Version 3.1. This update adds a variety of new visual changes that should please players who were displeased with the small size of the graphics when the game first launched. The game now also allows players to change languages easier than before and going forward will reward premium (paid) users with double XP on all activities. Here’s the official release notes:

• We added a language selector to Wordament Multiplayer.
• Wordament now has a larger board size available. Just press the Zoom button in the game to try it out!
• Crosswords board was made a bit larger. We plan to increase the board size even further in a future update.
• Premium users now earn double XP.
• Various bugfixes and optimizations.

Microsoft Ultimate Word Games is a four-in-one Windows 10 game that connects to Xbox Live for some competitive casual gaming. It’s free to download and play however it does have a premium option which removes the numerous ads that are in the free version.

While most people interested in a Surface Book have probably already gotten one, there’s some bad news for people who haven’t yet: The terabyte version of the Surface Book has been dropped from the online Microsoft Store. Without any kind of announcement or other fanfare from Microsoft, the option to get the most high-end version of the laptop has disappeared from the online marketplace.

We’re loving those skills, @AlannaWrites . #SurfaceBook pic.twitter.com/0rv7KQFcXj

— Microsoft Surface (@surface) July 6, 2017

There are rumors that the Surface Book may be getting the next device in its line sometime soon, but for right now, we can only interpret this as the current Surface Book getting production toned down. If you truly need the 1tb version of the Surface Book, you probably won’t have a problem picking one up using some kind of third party service, like Amazon – or even a retailer.

For some analysts and industry observers, the best way to measure the winners and losers in a growing cloud computing market has been to use metrics such as run rate, growth rate, and market share.

To date, Amazon’s AWS cloud compute has reign supreme in most of those categories as it looks to hold onto an almost ten-year head start over its competitors, but it now seems the lead may be shrinking faster than expected.

With most of the larger cloud computing companies posting their quarterly results, Synergy Research Group has been able to compile a report that sums of the gains made by each company and it’s Microsoft marking this quarter with the fast growth among its competition.

Based on Microsoft’s Q4 17 reporting, Azure saw an 11 percent growth in its public cloud offering which put the service at a 3 percent gain over last years position. The increase this past quarter has helped Microsoft snag 34 percent of the total market growth of public cloud computing. Meanwhile, competitors such as IBM, GCP, Alibaba, Oracle, and Google either saw a flat return a couple of percentage point drops in the same time frame as Azure’s growth.

Perhaps Microsoft’s growth is the result of a few attributions working in conjunction with one another as Office 365 gaining users and becomes the face of the company’s expansive cloud services or the recent acquisition of mobile first developing tools are finally having an effect on Azure’s development environment for the positive.

Whatever the case may be, Microsoft is seeing growth in what Synergy analysts believe is a pending downturn in the market.

“The year-on-year market growth rate is nudging down as we expected in such a large market. But it remains at comfortably over 40 percent and AWS alone generated revenue growth of $1.2 billion over the last four quarters.”

While Microsoft’s growth seems rather impressive against the industry, clear cut numbers for its cloud service have yet to be broken out. Despite the seemingly guarded nature of profit Azure alone makes, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform has earned its way into a comfortable second spot with AWS just out reach for the time being.

Last week, Microsoft made available the ISO files for Windows 10 S to MSDN subscribers. Today, Microsoft has followed up to make it easier for IT Pros in the education field (and also the tech savvy Windows fan) to freely download and install Windows 10 S to a Windows 10 Pro PC (via MSPU.)

To get started, you to visit this website, scroll down to the blue button, and download this Windows 10 S self-installer. To be clear, the website and the installer appears to be generally aimed at Education users, so keep this in mind as you proceed. The page, though, does note, “the Windows 10 S self-installer will allow you to test Windows 10 S on a variety of individual Windows 10 devices.”

The install of Windows 10 S also requires the user to be running version 1703 of Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Pro Education, Windows 10 Education, or Windows 10 Enterprise. Windows 10 Home is not supported. All settings and apps will be deleted on install, and it is advised to create a system backup and recovery disc if you would like to return to the standard version of Windows 10. There are also several potential issues which may arise if you choose to run the installer, according to the site:

Before you install Windows 10 S, be aware that non-Windows Store apps will not work, peripherals that require custom drivers may not work, and other errors may occur. In particular, this release of Windows 10 S:

• Is intended for education customers to test compatibility with existing hardware
• May not work with some device drivers, which may not yet be ready for Windows 10 S and may cause some loss in functionality
• May not be compatible with all peripherals that require custom drivers and, even if compatible, may cause aspects of the peripheral to not function.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 S installer functions in a similar way to the Windows 10 Update Assistant. It will download Windows 10 S from Microsoft’s servers and will install it to the system. Upon install, Windows 10 S will automatically activate since you’ve upgraded from Windows 10. You will be able to remove Windows 10 S within the first 10 days off installing it by using the Windows Recovery option in settings, but after the 10 day period is up, you will need to re-install Windows 10 manually using your recovery media.

Education customers who have upgraded can switch devices to Windows 10 Pro Education using the Microsoft Store for Education. Education customers, though, must have their PC configured for educational use by applying SetEduPolicies using the Setup School PCs app in order to proceed.

Earlier today Microsoft revealed that Windows 10 S will be coming to third party PCs for the education market.  The install tool appears to be linked to this announcement.

Writer’s Note: We’re in the process of installing Windows 10 S to one of our older PCs and we will update you once things have developed.

Update: We managed to successfully install Windows 10 S on our older HP ENVY dv7 laptop with an AMD A8 processor. The install removed all of our Win32 programs, reset the Start Menu, and removed most of our pre-existing settings. We were not prompted with the new Cortana enhanced set up screen, and on the initial boot we rather just received a list and the option to toggle certain settings on and off.

In a recent post, Microsoft announced it has moved Bing Ads to Azure SQL Database “to address performance and scalability requirements.” Microsoft provided a brief case study on the problems that Bing Ads faced prior to the move and the benefits that Bing Ads will see as a result of the move to Azure SQL Database.

“With millions of Bing Ads customers, hundreds of millions campaigns, and tens of billions of keywords and ads, the Bing Ads engineering team realized they would need to find a way to provide nearly unlimited scale to keep up with customer demand. With the projection of extreme scalability demands, doing everything on-premises was no longer considered to be a practical long-term solution. Scale-up hardware solutions would not accommodate the projected required resources and cost, both in terms of engineering costs and the required hardware resources.”

Microsoft is tasting some of its own medicine by moving the Bing Ads database architecture to the Azure SQL Database. Hopefully, Bing Ads migration to the Azure SQL Database will address the problems Bing Ads faced previously. Azure SQL Database’s nearly unlimited scale for the Bing Ads campaign management system will prove to be a boon for Microsoft and its customers alike.

Last week, Microsoft kicked off the Xbox Summer Spotlight, shining a light on the latest indie games from various developers. The Spotlight continues on this week, and Major Nelson is adding to the fun by running a giveaway where you can enter for a chance to win a Xbox One S and other great prizes.

Titles which are being highlighted this week include Resident Evil Revelations, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Dead Alliance, and more. Interestingly, Microsoft is choosing to put an extra spotlight on some titles which are just now going up for pre-order and are not yet available for download. You can see the updated list of titles below.

• August 1: Resident Evil Revelations (pre-order,) Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Dead Alliance (pre-order,) The Long Dark
• August 2: Tacoma (pre-order,) Vostok Inc (coming soon)
• August 3: Cuphead (pre-order)
• August 4: The Way (pre-order,) Mr Shifty (pre-order,) Race Arcade (pre-order.)

As an added bonus, you can visit Major Nelson’s blog and watch the Summer Spotlight trailer, and register to take part in a giveaway. First place prizes include a Xbox One S 500 GB Console, an Xbox Wireless Controller, a Seagate 2 TB HDD for Xbox One, a Razer headset, and more. There are also prizes for second place, including a Xbox Wireless Controller, a Controller charging stand, and a back pack. Five winners who come in third place winners

If you’re not so lucky, there are also prizes for second place, including a Xbox Wireless Controller, a Controller charging stand, and a back pack. Five winners who come in third place will receive digital Xbox One Codes for each featured title in the Summer Spotlight.

When Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 S along with its new Surface Laptop back in May, the company said that its OEM partners would soon release cheaper Windows 10 S PCs for the education market. Today, the company finally shared more details about these new devices as part of its general Back to school announcements.

“In the coming months, our partners will introduce many great devices for purchase, pre-installed with Windows 10 S, starting today with the Lenovo N23 ($249 USD) and N24 ($279 USD), available worldwide,” the blog post notes. In addition to these two PCs (apparently based on Lenovo’s pre-existing N23 Chromebook), Microsoft also shared that the following models are coming soon:

• ASUS Vivobook W202 ($279 USD), available in the US
• Dell Latitude 3180 ($229 USD) and 3189 ($299), available in the US and Canada
• Fujitsu LIFEBOOK P727 ($999 USD), available in the US and Canada
• HP ProBook x360 11EE ($299 USD), available in the US, UK and Australia

Last but not least, schools can already test Windows 10 S on their current guenine Windows 10 Pro PCs for free, and you can find detailed instructions on this page. “This initial release will help us gather valuable feedback to make Windows 10 S work great on a range of devices in schools, so we encourage IT professionals to try it on a variety of devices and let us know what they think,” added Microsoft.

Ten years after the release of the first Assassin’s Creed game in 2017, Assassin’s Creed Origins is expected to bring the action-adventure series to its roots, as its name suggest it. But unlike the first game which was set during the Third Crusade, the new entry will actually go back to Ptolemaic Egypt and explore the origins of the multi-secular conflict between Templars and Assassins.

As you may know, Assassin’s Creed was one of the first titles to be showcased during Microsoft’s E3 press briefing in June, and Ubisoft said that the game will be one of the few games to be enhanced for the Xbox One X this fall. While the game won’t be a timed Xbox exclusive, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has nothing but good things to say about Microsoft’s new console. Talking with Gamespot, Guillemot emphasized that Microsoft did the right thing to focus on raw power instead of other features such as Kinect. According to the exec, a significantly more powerful console can make the video games industry grow:

We did a deal with Microsoft on Assassin’s Creed: Origins, which is taking really good advantage of the power of the machine. We like very much what they are doing because instead of having a Kinect or something this time the industry went after more power for the machine, so more immersion, better AI, and overall better games. We like that because it means the industry will grow because of the better the experiences, the more people want to have it. We think it has a good potential. If Microsoft is really behind it, it can do well.

Of course, not everyone will agree with Guillemot, and some analysts still think that the Xbox One X will be overpriced. To be fair, it’s still hard to say before seeing the new hardware and all the games running on it in 4K. This month, Gamescom should give us a good taste of things to come as attendees will be able to try the console for the first time. We can’t wait to see if the new console will continue to gain some momentum after attendees start to share their first hands-on experience later this month.

 

Starting August 31st, Xbox, and Taco Bell will come together in the US to give lucky customers the chance to win a brand new Xbox One X. As part of the promotion, the new Taco Bell Steak Quesarito $5 box will include a code for consumers to text in for a chance to win the Xbox One X.

The boxes will be available from August 31 to October 4th at participating Taco Bell locations, and while supplies last. According to Microsoft, there will be a potential winner every 10 minutes throughout the entire promotion.

In a statement, Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, and Chief Marketing Officer, Xbox commented on the promotion.

“When it launches starting November 7, Xbox One X will bring gamers an amazing new level of console power and immersion…We have a long history of partnerships with Taco Bell, dating back to the first Xbox, and are excited to once again work together to reward gamers with the opportunity to win Xbox One X.”

Perhaps this latest promotion might have some die hard Xbox fans and gamers running to their local Taco Bell just to secure an Xbox One X. After all, pre-orders have yet to open up on the Microsoft Store, or many other retailers.

While Microsoft’s Xbox brand usually has a strong presence at the popular Armageddon Expo in New Zealand, this year will be different as the company has chosen to pool their resources and plan for a special Xbox One X launch event later in 2017 instead of attending the next one in Auckland in October.

“To showcase the power of the Xbox One X Microsoft is planning a dedicated launch event for Xbox fans nearer the New Zealand launch on November 7,” Microsoft’s New Zealand category lead, Jane Dore, told Culture Jam. “There will be Xbox One S consoles and games on display at various booths during Armageddon, however.”

Armageddon Expo is a major video game and geek culture convention that’s held in major cities across New Zealand several times a year (not in a dissimilar fashion to Comic-Con in the U.S.). Are you going to be disappointed by Microsoft’s absence or does it make sense for them to hold a separate Xbox One X event instead?

Titanfall 2 is now available to play as part of the EA Access paid subscription service. The game is a sequel to the original Titanfall which also launched on Xbox One and has generally scored positive reviews from gamers and critics. Here’s its official description, trailer, and shopping link.

From Respawn Entertainment, the studio that brought you the award-winning Titanfall, comes Titanfall 2. In single player, an aspiring Pilot and a veteran Titan combine forces to save their own lives and combat a powerful enemy against all odds. Multiplayer offers brand new Titans, expanded Pilot abilities, and deeper customization to elevate the fast-paced and exciting gameplay fans expect from the series.

Buy/Download Titanfall 2 on Xbox One

Titanfall 2 continues to be updated on a regular basis with new downloadable content. Are you still playing the game or have you been waiting for it to come to EA Access? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Powerstar Golf has updated on the Xbox One to fix a major bug that was causing the game to crash upon launch or from within menus for many users. The game had been experiencing these rather sever issues for several months now so it should come as a relief to many gamers now that they can play again.

Powerstar Golf launched alongside the Xbox One and is still played by many console owners to this day. The game is a fun take on the golf video game genre but features lively locations, special abilities, and a seamless integration of Xbox Live to automatically include the plays of other gamers on a user’s Friends List.

Do you still play Powerstar Golf? Let us know in the comments below.

New video game, Slime Rancher, is now available to play on the Xbox One console and is free to play for Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of August’s Games With Gold campaign. Here’s the official game description:

Slime Rancher is the tale of Beatrix LeBeau, a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the ‘Far, Far Range’ where she tries her hand at making a living wrangling slimes. With a can-do attitude, plenty of grit, and her trusty vacpack, Beatrix attempts to stake a claim, amass a fortune, and avoid the continual peril that looms from the rolling, jiggling avalanche of slimes around every corner!

Grab Slime Rancher on Xbox One

Joining Slime Rancher as a Games With Gold title this month is the Xbox 360 game, Bayonetta, which is also playable on the Xbox One due to its support for backwards compatibility. Are you going to play Slime Rancher or Bayonetta this month? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft shares have taken a small hit due to its recent earning reports. Last month, the tech giant shared that a declining 1% profit margin for the 2018 fiscal year. Stocks are now down 1.6% since the announcement.

However, Cowen, an investment and research firm, advises that the concern surrounding Microsoft’s expectations is overstated. CNBC reports that analysts expect Microsoft to be underselling themselves, just like they did this last fiscal year.

“We have confidence that the margin concerns on the Street will fade as the year progresses, and we remain bullish on MSFT’s opportunities over both the medium and long-term,” analyst Gregg Moskowitz wrote in a note to clients Monday entitled “Deeper look into FY18 margins reveals upside potential.”

Furthermore, the analyst also increased his Microsoft price up to $85 from $80, confident in the tech giant’s margin expansion.

“We believe total Office revenue (consumer + corporate) is poised to accelerate, Cowen’s cloud survey work has increased our confidence level in Azure’s [cloud computing business] long-term success, an improving annuity mix meaningfully raises visibility and reduces execution risk,” he wrote. “There are multiple levers of upside to FY18 revenue and EPS (namely, Azure, O365, gross margins, phone hardware sale and mix shift).”

Do you expect Microsoft to outperform the market this year or are you battening down the hatchet? Let us know your thoughts on MSFT stock prices this coming fiscal year.

Following the recent WannaCry and Petya ransomware attacks, Microsoft recommended all Windows 10 users to remove the unused but vulnerable SMBv1 file sharing protocol from their PCs. This is because both variants of the ransomware actually used the same SMBv1 exploit to replicate through network systems, even though it seems that Petya mostly affected Windows PCs in Ukraine.

Anyway, if you didn’t turn off the protocol on the PC already, you really should: Not only because new WannaCry/Petya variants could once again use the same vulnerability again to encrypt your files, but because another 20-year-old flaw has just been unveiled during the recent DEF CON hacker conference (via Security Affairs).

The SMB security flaw called “SMBLoris” was discovered by security researchers at RiskSense, who explained that it can lead to DoS attacks affecting every version of the SMB protocol and all versions of Windows since Windows 2000. More importantly, a Raspberry Pi and just 20 lines of Python code are enough to put a Windows server to its knees.

RiskSense discovered the SMB vulnerability when analyzing EternalBlue, the leaked SMB exploit that is the source of the recent ransomware attacks. They disclosed the security flaw to Microsoft in June, but the company said that it won’t fix it. “The case offers no serious security implications and we do not plan to address it with a security update,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Threatpost. “For enterprise customers who may be concerned, we recommend they consider blocking access from the internet to SMBv1.”

Microsoft is planning to entirely remove the SMBv1 protocol in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, so it may be not be as bad as it seems. However, everyone still running older versions of Windows will remain affected by the issue, that’s why it’s strongly recommended to simply disable the SMBv1 protocol. To do so, we invite you to check some detailed instructions on our previous post about it.

Today, the Mojang announced the big release of Minecraft Better Together Update into public beta. For those tuning in, the Better Together Update introduces cross-platform play for all Bedrock Editions including console, pocket editions, and Windows 10 PC. Pretty much everything except PlayStation versions basically. The beta is open to everyone that owns digital copies of Minecraft on Windows 10 PC, Xbox One, and Android. Here’s how you can join in the fun:

Xbox One / Windows 10

You will need to own the digital version of the game. For the beta, disc owners are not supported – sorry!
Joining the Minecraft Beta on Windows 10 or Xbox One:

1. Go to the Store app on Xbox One or a Windows 10 PC.
2. Search for the Xbox Insider Hub app.
3. Download and install Xbox Insider Hub.
4. Launch the Xbox Insider Hub.
5. Navigate to Insider content > Minecraft Beta.
6. Select Join.
7. Have fun and find bugs!

Android

JOIN
– Click this Join Beta link and click the “Become a Tester” button as shown below, then wait for an update in the Google Play Store.  If you don’t see the page below, double check you are using the account that owns your copy of Minecraft: Pocket Edition.  Remember to back up your worlds before you start beta testing.

LEAVE
– Click this Leave Beta link and click “Leave the program” as shown below.  Then uninstall your copy of the game from the Google Play Store.  Don’t worry, your worlds will not be deleted and you don’t have to buy the game again.Then wait for the Google Play Store to show the old version and reinstall the game.  Remember to restore any worlds you opened while beta testing because those worlds won’t be compatible with the old version.

Windows 10 and Android Better Together betas are already rolling out this morning but according to Mojang, Xbox One is ‘coming soon’. How soon has yet to be determined. As for other platforms, there is no news for beta or release date to report just yet. Until then, you can keep up with news about Minecraft and it’s upcoming cross-play features here at OnMSFT.