The Windows 10 Creators Update is now firmly in our hands, having started its deployment earlier this week. The update has plenty of new features, however, if you aren’t the creative type who would enjoy things like Beam streaming and 3D painting, it might not strike your fancy. But Microsoft’s Rich Turner might have something more interesting for you.

Blogged: Windows 10 Creators Update: What’s new in Bash/WSL & Windows Console https://t.co/WVLYaz3Oeo pic.twitter.com/IloUKX2Vyh

— Rich Turner (@richturn_ms) April 12, 2017

Bash/WSL – some additions that came to the Windows command-line family back during the Anniversary Update – now has a frankly overwhelming number of improvements that are shipping with the Creators Update.

Here’s a brief list of what’s new in the Creators Update:

• More compatibility
• Ubuntu 16.04 support
• Ifconfig & network connection enumeration support
• Ping & ICMP network support
• File change notification support (INOTIFY)
• Windows <-> Linux Interop
• UNIX and Netlink Socket improvements
• TCP socket & IPv6 improvements
• Miscellaneous WSL Improvements
• Windows Console & Command-Line Improvements

There’s a whole lot more in the blog post documenting the new update, including some in-depth explanations about each and every addition. This new update is massive for people who want to get started with bash, and most certainly proves that the team behind it has responded positively to a significant amount of feedback.

What’s more, the blog post ends by promising even more changes coming in the future. The dev team seems to have gone into overdrive with the launch of the Creators Update – we’ll see if they can keep up the pace going forward.

As we all must know by now, Windows 10 has been touted by Microsoft as the most secure and efficient operating system available. There’s no doubt by its users that Windows has become a more polished and efficient system. However, before there was Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and so on, there was Windows 3.1.

Originally released publicly in April 1992, Windows 3.1 follows 3.0 with improvements to the MS-DOS based platform. It has a good run until December 31, 2001, when support for the Windows 3.1 OS was retired.

Just in case you’ve forgotten (or have never seen) Windows 3.1, here is a video of Bill Gates himself to introduce it.

As the description of the video explains, this was the beginning of a 3-hour long tutorial on VHS. “In this video, you’re going to see the future: Windows,” the younger Gates promised in standard definition. But it looks like he wasn’t too far from the truth.

This week we are celebrating the rollout of Windows 10 Creators Update with the promise of Redstone 3 to come. Windows continues to lead over competitors as the most used operating system, and looks to be doing so for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft is on a roll when it comes to their Xbox community. Yesterday, an Xbox One Insider discovered the self-service refund, which is turning out to be quite a hit with gamers. Today, Major Nelson announced that an update will be rolling out for Xbox One. But this isn’t just any update, many of the additions are highly fan-requested features.

The first in line are new features in the Profile and Activity Feed. Now users will be able to visit another person’s profile and select the “Join broadcast’ button to instantly jump into the stream. The Activity Feed is also seeing a bit of a rework, offering users the chance to hide individual posts or pin them at the top of the feed. Furthermore, posts are now able to be filtered according to game, Club, or friends making it easier to sift through the chaos.

It looks like Clubs and the LFG tools introduced last year are what really got the meat of the update though. Here is the list:

• When you create an LFG post, as the owner you will be able to see new vetting cards that include hero stats from gamers interested in joining your party. Hero stats are contextual to the game you’re playing, showing you relevant stats like kill/death ratio, rank, or score.
• Achievement hunters, this one is for you! You will be able to search LFG posts from the Achievements tab, related to the Achievement you’re trying to finish.
• We’re adding the number of open LFG posts to the Game Hub and Club Hub headers.
  Have you made a successful LFG post that you want to create again? Now you can see previous LFG posts that you have created, participated or shown interest in, and can copy them to create new posts.
• When creating an LFG post, see all the recent tags you’ve used and easily select them.
  Club owners and admins will be identified and labeled in their text posts to better help them stand out and manage their community.
• Club owners and admins can pin a post at the top of their Club feed.

The update also rolls out with the long overdue Xbox One/Xbox 360 filter in My Games and Apps. Gone are the days when users had to scroll through lists of both generations of games, some of which including way too many titles in similarity.

It’s clear the Xbox team are striving to be the consumer-oriented model that drives gaming communities. No wonder Sony PS4 players are at an unrest. Maybe they could use a UserVoice forum?

Microsoft today released their most recent biannual transparency reports on the Microsoft Transparency Hub. The reports which cover the Law Enforcement Requests Report, U.S. National Security Orders Report and Content Removal Requests Reports show that Law enforcement and FISA requests are on par with previous reporting periods.

Overall, the reports cover July to December 2016. According to Microsoft, the latest Content Removal Requests Report also details requests to remove content from governments, copyright holders and individuals subject to the European Union’s “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling. The company has also disclosed a National Security Letter (NSL) which was received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2014, that sought data belonging to a customer of the company’s consumer services. A few highlights, which were all selected by Microsoft, from the latest transparency report can be seen below.

• During the latter half of 2016, Microsoft received a total number of 25,837 legal requests for customer information from law enforcement agencies. This brings the total number of requests from law enforcement for 2016 to 61,409, which is a decrease from 2015, when requests totaled 74,311.
• A majority (71 percent) of the law enforcement demands Microsoft received during this period continued to come from a handful of countries, led by the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Germany.
• For the latest Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) data reported (which is January – June 2016), Microsoft received 0-499 FISA orders seeking content disclosures affecting 12,000-12,499 accounts, compared to the 0-499 FISA orders seeking disclosure of content impacting 17,500-17,999 accounts reported for the previous period. We received 0-499 National Security Letters in the latest reporting period, which remains unchanged from the previous period.

Microsoft continues to believe that “transparency is essential to accountability and building trust in technology.” The company notes that they are “committed to upholding these principles in our practices and our reporting,” and invites you to visit this website to learn more about the transparency efforts.

Update:

With the warmer months finally arriving in our half of the globe, many people area plotting their vacations, maybe even when they shouldn’t be. According to a statement from KAYAK, the trip booking service, 57% of trip bookings are actually done mostly during the standard workday.

So KAYAK decided that they didn’t want anyone getting busted for not being productive while they are at work, thus their new spin-off site: KAYAK At Work. The site looks similar to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to give an illusion of actually doing work instead of booking a trip.

“We created KAYAK At Work to help people search for travel, something they’re already doing at the office, covertly while also looking more productive while doing it,” David Solomito, vice president of KAYAK’s North America marketing, told the Observer.

The page offers very basic search functions to plan your next trip. Even the results fit in with the basic Excel mask that is properly titled as the “Travel Problem Solved Report.”

While it’s not very convincing up close and personal, KAYAK at Work might fool some of your neighboring cubicle companions that you are working. Interestingly, the guy who built Windows Solitaire apparently had the same idea back in 1988, although Microsoft never implemented his “boss key.”

The Xbox community was excited to learn yesterday that Microsoft would be bringing the ability for self-service refunds to Windows 10 and Xbox One digital purchases. This announcement has spread like wildfire across the gaming community, even in areas that you’d least expect.

In case you missed it, yesterday, an Xbox One Insider discovered that Microsoft will be implementing their own digital refund policy, letting users return most games with a specific list of criteria. Games that have been bought within 14 days, played for a maximum of two hours, and at least played once will be eligible. This consumer-based announcement tends to favor purchasing games to try them out and feeling safe enough to return them if it doesn’t meet standards. Of course, if it is abused, accounts will be blocked from using the service.

Now, the Xbox One announcement is now the top voted Reddit post of all time on the r/PS4 subforum. The request is aptly titled, “Let’s put the pressure on Sony to implement something like this as well.”

Micolash explains in the post that such a refund service would be a benefit for everyone involved.

This is the kind of forward thinking customer-centric thinking that helps all users. No dealing with customer service, no hassle, easy. Someone buys something on your account? Game is buggy or broken? Trailers really misleading? Simply refund the game (not season pass or DLC) yourself within 14 days as long as you haven’t played it for more than 2 hours.

Consumers of Sony PS4 have their own refund policy in which they are not allowed to download or try the game if they want a refund. With over 46.7 thousand upvotes within only twenty hours, it looks like the PS4 community is in unrest.

Some of the Reddit user responses are optimistic, hoping for the change in refund policy. “That would be a nice feature,” says one person on the top comment with over 3000 upvotes. Others seem to be settled that Sony won’t base their change off the Xbox One announcement. One devoted fan of Sony shared from their experience:

It would be, but it won’t happen. I’ve owned every home console Sony has ever put out and still have them all set up in my entertainment center (If I could get my hands on a black dev-kit PSX my entertainment center would be as black as an emo’s soul.) Sony has had some pretty abysmal policies with refunds, especially chargebacks (even when accidental.)

Many Xbox One Reddit users seem to be supporting the request made to Sony by PS4 users. As Todd2r puts it:

Honestly, this is a win for all gamers so I can see why it’s a hot topic over on the ps4 side. We are all gamers and just want to be treated fairly. Hopefully, Sony does the same thing, and I think they will, and they get it done soon for PlayStation gamers.

It’s worth noting that Xbox One isn’t the first to implement this service-friendly refund. Other digital markets such as Steam and Origin have similar self-service refunds with guidelines very close to these. The idea is that gamers will spend more money to try games they are on the fence about instead of not making the purchase at all.

Microsoft is known for its powerful software, including both Powerpoint, and Power BI, but if the company has its way, it might soon be known for buying its own power as well. According to a new report from the Associated Press, Microsoft could soon bypass the local power companies in Washington State by buying its own power.

The AP report shows that thanks to a new deal with Puget Sound Energy, Microsoft will be able to buy its own power on the open market. Though the settlement must first be approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, Microsoft first filed for the deal on Monday. The Redmond giant also expects that with this deal they would “provide more flexibility and enable it to support more carbon-free power in the state.”

Terms are not exactly clear, but the AP reports that Microsoft would pay a $23.6 million exit fee to PSE to ensure other ratepayers are not harmed by the move, ultimately making sure that the utility would return that money to customers.  Microsoft is also known for its commitment to clean energy and was recently awarded as NA Wind Deal of the Year. The company also revealed that it has plans to shift to 50% renewable energy use by 2018.

Project Scorpio, the latest gaming console for Microsoft, has been making a lot of headlines since Eurogamer finally revealed its full specs last week. Since then, we learned a lot of interesting details about Project Scorpio dev kits yesterday, but we’ve yet to see what the final product looks like, or what it will cost.

As it turns out, it seems that Microsoft won’t reveal the final Project Scorpio design in the press. Xbox head Phil Spencer announced today on Xbox Wire that “we’re excited to unveil Project Scorpio and the amazing game experiences it powers at E3 this June.” As a reminder, Microsoft will hold its much-anticipated media briefing on Sunday, June 11th at 2PM PDT and we’ll be there to cover it live.

“Ultimately, we know you care most about great games, whether they be exclusive, multiplatform, independent or AAA,” explained Spencer. “We are proud of the diverse lineup of games coming this year that will only be playable on Xbox One and will play better on Project Scorpio,” he added. It’s true that Project Scorpio will really need great games to get traction from consumers (and developers), and we hope that the Xbox team will bring its A game at E3 to delight Xbox fans .

Users on the Office Insider Slow ring have just received several new features for their Microsoft Office apps with Build 17.8067. With this new build of the Office apps on Windows Mobile, Insiders will now be able to insert links to files and websites in Excel, Word, and Powerpoint as well as collaborate on files in Excel. Excel has also been given added support for files that contain ink.

The Office apps on Android have also updated to Build 16.0.8027.1002 with the same updates as Windows Mobile.

Collaborative Editing essentially allows for more than one user to work on a single document at the same time with all changes being synced through the cloud. “You and your colleagues can open and work on the same Excel workbook,” Microsoft explains. “This is called co-authoring. When you co-author, you can see each other’s changes quickly — in a matter of seconds. And with certain versions of Excel, you’ll see other people’s selections in different colors.”

Have you been waiting for Collaborative Editing? Let us know in the comments below.

Looking to get your hands on some free games, and help Microsoft develop the future of Xbox while you’re at it? If you’re on Preview Ring 3 of the Xbox Insider program, you’ll get your chance. This ring of insiders is getting access to the Xbox Game Pass – Microsoft’s new game “vault” service, which opens up access to tons of games for a monthly subscription (via Windows Central.)

You’ll only be getting a small portion of the hundreds of games offered in the Game Pass – only about 30 – but it’s enough to get the gist of the program, and you won’t have to pay the subscription as long as you’re part of the preview group.

Just go to the Insider Content tab on your Xbox One and check off the Xbox Game Pass Preview section to get access to your new games. While they won’t stick around forever – unless you end up subscribing when the service goes live – they’re definitely games worth playing. Go ahead and send out any feedback to the Xbox team to make sure the Game Pass becomes the best it can be!

An Xbox One Insider shared on Reddit their find in the latest announcements. According to the provided images, Microsoft is introducing a self-service refund feature.

For many gamers, this is a blessing. Oftentimes, particularly in an age when we have games in early access and preview programs, we find ourselves dissatisfied with a game but are saddled with the purchase. With this Self-Service Refund feature, no longer will the buyer have to beware. At least, that is, when it comes to Xbox One and Windows 10 games/apps.

Neowin cites the full announcement:

You’ve spoken; we’ve listened. In support of offering gamers the freedom of choice, we’re making changes to the Microsoft Store purchase experience by offering customers a simple way to instantly return digital products like games and apps through account.microsoft.com.

When a game or app leaves you wanting more, we’re here to help. Self-service refunds on Xbox One and Windows 10 provide a quick, simple way of returning a digital product.

To request a self-service refund:

1. Navigate to account.microsoft.com and sign-in.
2. From the top menu bar, select Payment & billing > Order history.
3. Navigate to a purchased game or app, and select Request a refund.

Please note the below conditions for requesting a self-service refund:

• Games and apps are eligible for self-service refunds within 14 days of purchase if you have less than 2 hours of play time across all accounts.
• DLC, season passes, and add-ons are not eligible for self-service refunds.
• The game or app must be downloaded and launched before requesting a self-service refund.
• You must wait for at least 1 day after the game or app’s release before requesting a self-service refund.
• Certain Windows 10 apps may not be eligible for self-service refunds.
• Microsoft reserves the right to block access for users who abuse self-service refunds.

This service is similar to other digital markets such as Steam and Sony’s PlayStation Store. Both of which have 14-day refund policies, except in Sony’s case, it is only allowed if the game hasn’t been downloaded yet. Microsoft looks to be taking a smarter ‘Try it before you buy it’ approach with restrictions excluding DLC, season passes, add-ons, in-game purchases, and select titles that haven’t been specified.

Remedy, famous for Quantum Break on Xbox One, has announced that their next game won’t be an Xbox exclusive. The company is instead developing their Northlight technology for PlayStation 4 consoles, and will “release the game on a wider range of platforms” (via Neowin.)

The announcement was made in a blog post, revealing that Remedy Entertainment saw a revenue of €16.4 million (about $17.4 million USD), a year-on-year revenue growth of 19.4% and an operating profit of €3.9 million ($4.14 million). This is mainly fueled by the release of Quantum Break in spring 2016 and the revenues generated by Remedy’s existing game portfolio. Remedy addressed the move to publishing on both Xbox and PS4:

Created exclusively for Microsoft, Quantum Break was the biggest entertainment production to come out of Finland at the time of its release. Currently Remedy is developing a sequel to one of the most popular games in the world in cooperation with the Korean publisher Smilegate, whose long-time success CrossFire gathers 650 million registered users and over one billion dollar yearly revenues. Remedy is also working on a game project codenamed P7. The company’s strategy is to release the game on a wider range of platforms, which is why Remedy is developing its Northlight technology also for PlayStation 4 consoles.

Ultimately, this move by Remedy could contribute to Sony’s upper hand over Microsoft, as many believe that Xbox struggles to pick up hit AAA exclusive titles. Sony currently has exclusive titles such as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us Part II in the pipeline for PS4. Though they have not been very specific, Microsoft, meanwhile, has State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3, Forza Motorsport 7 and Sea of Thieves planned for Xbox. What’s next for Microsoft without Remedy as Xbox exclusive publisher? Let us know in the comments below.

Last week, we finally got the final specs of Project Scorpio, the next gaming console for Microsoft after Eurogamer published their exclusive reveal. It seems that Microsoft is becoming quite open about the development of its new console, as the company also invited Gamasutra to show them Project Scorpio dev kits. These dev kits don’t look like the real console that will ship to consumers later this year, and they actually have slightly different specs, too.

First of all, the GPU in Project Scorpio dev kits includes 44 customized compute units running at 1172 Mhz and delivering 6.6 teraflops of computing power (Project Scorpio only has 40 CUs delivering 6 teraflops). Additionally, the dev kits have 24GB of GDDR5 memory instead of 12GB, a more powerful power supply and an additionnal 1TB SSD. On the front, the dev kits also feature a real-time clock, an OLED screen with navigation buttons plus five programmable screens.

Kevin Gammill, Microsoft’s group program manager for Xbox Core Platform explained why Project Scorpio dev kits have beefier specs than the final console:

At a high level, it’s much easier for a game developer to come in higher and tune down, than come in lower and tune up. Or nail it. That just rarely happens. Our overarching design principle was to make it easy for devs to hit our goals: 4K, 4K textures, rocksteady framerates, HDR, wide color gamut, and spatial audio.

The Xbox team also shared additional details about Freesync 2 and HDMI 2.1 support on Project Scorpio, hinting that Microsoft is currently talking with TV manufacturers. “This is new technology we expect to see coming to displays over the coming years,” explained Jason Ronald, head of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group. “We want to make sure Scorpio is set up to take advantage of it when it comes out.”

Microsoft will start shipping the first Project Scorpio dev kits to developers in the coming weeks. When Project Scorpio will be released to the public later this year, it will be possible for consumers to convert the new console into a dev kit, something that is already possible to do with current Xbox One consoles. However, game developers looking to get access to the more powerful Scorpio dev kit will first have to become a partner developer, which they can do by joining the ID@XBOX program.

Word is filtering out that Microsoft has indeed confirmed a hardware event, widely expected to introduce new Surface devices, for May 2nd.

Microsoft has posted the details of a live stream under the title “May Event,” with a #MicrosoftEDU hashtag, and a promise of a link to a livestream, beginning at 9:30am ET / 6:30am PT on May 2nd:

Why the event is tagged this way, and whether or not it has to do with the possibility of a new “Windows Cloud” clamshell device, remains to be seen, but we’ll bring you all the details as they become available.

A bit of an update: The event is scheduled for a venue in New York City, and we’ll be there to bring you all the latest, stay tuned!

Last Fall, Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President in Microsoft’s Operating Systems Group came back to Redmond after nearly a year of sabbatical leave. Until now, the exec had stayed very quiet and didn’t talk publicly except for a single tweet published back in November. Yesterday though, Belfiore finally made his public comeback just as Microsoft started rolling out the Windows 10 Creators Update. The exec gave an interview to Mashable and also started tweeting again:

Leave of absence. Got back in the fall, went "public" today. my story on https://t.co/On1i8bYM49

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) April 12, 2017

In the interview, the former Windows Phone evangelist reveals that it was a “great experience” to travel the world with his family for almost a year. “I came back with a new perspective on the broad audience Microsoft serves,” he explained, and the experience also gave Belfiore unique look on how Microsoft evolved during his absence. “The improved collaboration and customer focus has been really refreshing,” he noted.

Belfiore addressed the state of Microsoft Edge in the interview, which is one of the projects that he worked on over the past few years. While Microsoft has improved Edge significantly with the Creators Update, Belfiore acknowledged that “in the browser scheme of things, we have room to grow.” However, the exec revealed that Microsoft has no plans to port Edge on other mobile platforms for now. “We want to put customers first and it’s not something we have plans for” he explained. “We’ll put investment where there are high value experiences.”

Moreover, Belfiore shared that ditching the Internet Explorer brand after so many years was the right thing to do for Microsoft. “We’re not second-guessing that. It takes educating people, but I feel righteous about it,” he said, adding that Microsoft was “playing a long game” against its competitors.

Other highlights of the interview include Belfiore’s new role as the education advocate in the Windows team. This isn’t officially reflected in his job title, but Belfiore is now in charge of improving Microsoft’s education efforts, in a context where Chromebooks are increasingly challenging Windows PCs. “We have made giant progress in Windows 10 on Creators Update,” said Belfiore, noting that the OS now “takes less memory and hard drive space, which lets the price of devices come down.”

However, the exec didn’t address the recent rumours about Windows 10 Cloud, which could be Microsoft’s most serious response to Chromebooks. As Microsoft is rumoured to hold an early May event in addition to the Build 2017 developer conference, we’re also wondering if we’ll soon see Belfiore back on stage. The exec is a great presenter and used to be recognised as the face of Windows Phone back in the day, so we definitely hope to see him more in the coming weeks.

Have you ever wanted to become a master chef or have your own personal chef to guide you in the cooking of your meals? Well, if you’re a cooking pro or a new to the kitchen cooking noob, you might want to check out Skype’s first ever food-inspired “Heston bot.”

The Heston bot provides cooking tips, seasonal menus, and personal anecdotes directly from legendary Chef Heston Blumenthal. Skype believes that the bot will “empower you to think differently about food,” by making cooking “a fun and immersive experience that evolves as your skills do.” Heston bot will also deliver to you new recipes based on different seasons and themes, meaning you will never get bored with the same recipes. And, for added fun, you can stay tuned during the weeks in between episodes for additional bursts of cooking info, stories, and chats from Heston.

To get started with Heston Bot, you can simply search for “Heston Bot” in the Skype Bot Directory, read the bot’s profile and terms, and then click “Add to Contacts.” You must be running the latest Skype app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or the web to enjoy the experience, so be sure that you’re fully updated!

Microsoft’s Larry Hyrb has taken to Reddit to announce that the company has begun testing custom Xbox Gamerpics internally and that the new functionality will soon roll out to Xbox Insiders followed by the eventual public launch.

“We announced that this feature is coming earlier this year, but we’re starting to test this internally,” Hyrb’s brief post reads. “After that it will roll out to Xbox Insiders before we release to everyone. No ETA on when each roll out will take place, but if you want to see what they look like…you can check out my profile on Xbox Live.”

Hyrb’s current Gamerpic is that of the new Project Scorpio graphic which is assumed to be an image that he uploaded himself. Gamerpics have until now been a preselection of images provided by Microsoft or a user-created image made from taking a screencap of their 3D Xbox Avatar. The static images are used to represent Xbox users across the Xbox Live network on the Xbox One console and Windows 10 devices. Custom Gamerpics will essentially allow users to upload any image they want to represent themselves online in much the same way profile images are chosen for social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Will you use a custom Gamerpic or are you planning to stick to the traditional images? Let us know in the comments below.