Scams are everywhere. As advertisements become more and more prevalent on just about every website, it becomes easier for the more crafty con artists to sneak their way inside of your computer and take a swing at your wallet – or worse, your identity. One of the most common forms of rip-off in the digital realm takes the form of the “tech support scam,” which tries to convince you of a problem with your computer, and get you to fork over information to “fix” it.

There’s a good chance that, if you’re tech savvy enough to frequent this website, you’re the sort of person who doesn’t fall for these under any circumstances. If you have any computer newbies in your family, however, you may want to take a look at Microsoft’s new blog post detailing some of the scams.

Microsoft detailed quite a few different types of scams in its blog post, of varying severity. The first couple are ones that you’ve probably seen quite a few times – FakeBSOD and TechBrolo.

These are pretty common, and you’ve likely come across them once or twice while you’re out in the wilds of the internet. While spoofing an innocent looking web page, or even making you think you’re experiencing a Blue Screen of Death, these pop-ups are going to throw some spooky looking jargon at you to get you to call their number and take part in the scam. While common, these ones are usually harmless. Killing your browser through task manager is usually going to do the job and prevent any further intrusion.

Sometimes, TechBrolo scams will spoof a browser inside of your browser, while forcing your REAL browser to go to full screen. It’s a scam that, if you’re not paying attention, can completely pull the wool over your eyes. Rule of thumb? Just never call a phone number when you get one of these pop ups.

Microsoft capped off the post by mentioning scams like Cusax, which can actually cause some harm well beyond the normal, spooky pop-up. These things can get inside your computer and screw around with your registry, actually spoofing real problems to try and convince you to enter information into a dialogue box, or call a phone number. These are seriously nasty, and can be difficult to fix if they get to you.

How does Microsoft recommend you fend off these scams? Well, by using Microsoft products, of course. It’s recommended you upgrade to Windows 10, use Microsoft Edge, and keep up to date with Windows Defender if you want to stay safe out there. While it’s a little bit cheesy to hear Microsoft plug their stuff like this, there’s a lot of truth in it – just sticking with Windows 10 will cut out a whole lot of unnecessary threats.

Last summer, Microsoft announced the Excel World Championship, placing competing Excel users from around the world in a tough battle through questions which focus on data management, data visualization, and formula management.  Now that the competition has settled, there is one Excel competition from each country and Microsoft is calling on you to help determine the winner!

According to Microsoft, submissions for the data visualization challenge are now posted on the #ExcelWorldChamp website and you can visit the site anytime between April 4 and April 6, 2017 to vote for your favorite submissions.  Each vote will help determine contestant’s final score, so be sure to keep voting and tune on at the #ExcelWorldChamp website on April 7, 2017 at 10 a.m. EDT to hear who is the ultimate Excel champion!

As a reminder, the winner of the Excel World Championship will win a trip to Seattle, Washington, and chance to meet with the Excel product team to provide feedback on the next features added to Excel. So, if you have a favorite, be sure to keep the votes coming!

Earlier this week, we learned that Microsoft could reveal all the hardware details about Project Scorpio, its much-anticipated new gaming console as soon as this week. This echoed what Xbox head Phil Spencer said a couple of weeks ago, hinting that keeping all the details for Microsoft’s E3 press conference could be counterproductive.

As it turns out, the rumors were on point. Eurogamer and Digital Foundry have just announced that they will have an exclusive Xbox Scorpio reveal this Thursday, April 6 at 6AM PST:

To clear up the speculation: @digitalfoundry will have an exclusive Xbox Scorpio reveal on @eurogamer this Thursday at 2pm UK / 6am Pacific. pic.twitter.com/S6xxT2YCcn

— Eurogamer (@eurogamer) April 4, 2017

Microsoft already revelead some hardware details about Project Scorpio back at E3 2016, emphasizing the 6 teraflops of computing power and the true 4K games. However, many questions remain unanswered: will Project Scorpio be as slim as the Xbox One S, even with an internal power brick? Will it drop the Kinect port, too? Will it support Bluetooth (current Xbox One models don’t have it)? There is so much we want to know, including details about VR, power consumption, accessories, and much more.

Overall, it makes sense for Microsoft to reveal Project Scorpio ahead of E3. By doing so, the company will be able to focus its E3 press event on games, which is what gamers really care about. Following the launch of the more powerful Playstation 4 Pro last Fall, it’s clear that Xbox fans have really high expectations about Project Scorpio, and Microsoft can’t really afford to disappoint them. The Xbox team has a really good shot at leading the gaming narrative in the next few weeks and we’re really looking forward to get all the details on Thursday, as we bring them to you. Stay tuned!

Today marks the second day of the #BeamThemeWeek event celebrating the global launch of the Beam app on Xbox One. As we reported yesterday, Xbox Wire news posts have been commandeered with everything there is to know about Beam. Today we’re learning about the #BeamLove because everything is in hashtags nowadays.

When the team mentions #BeamLove, they are mainly talking about what they call the unique community of streamers. The team at Beam love when streamers interact with each other, collaborating and hosting ‘friendly raids’ where hosts take their followers to visit another person’s channel for a while.

Built as an interactive streaming service, it isn’t surprising that the support is advertised as highly engaged with their partners. According to the Xbox Wire post, support tickets average less than fifteen minutes with 24/7 service. Furthermore, Beam also has a feedback.beam.pro forum similar to UserVoice where users can submit ideas and vote.

Today’s streaming partners on Beam are themed with Tropical Tuesday, whether it be gameplay, recipes, or costumes. If you’re looking for a chance to win one of the 2,000 prizes in Beam Pro and Xbox codes, then join in on one of the chats.

Following the release of the Xbox One March update last week, the Xbox team is still busy working on new features that will roll out first to Xbox Insiders in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Preview Alpha participants can now download a new preview build which fixes an issue that could cause Home to crash when the console is configured to certain locales.

Xbox One Insiders – Preview ALPHA Users – 4/3 Build notes for 6.00pm here https://t.co/mGgJht5Loh and on REDDIT https://t.co/lF9whOm2JY

— Brad Rossetti (@WorkWombatman) April 3, 2017

You can find the full changelog below, be aware that this new build still has the same known issues as before:

DETAILS

OS version released: rs2_release_xbox_1704.170330-1900
Available: 6:00PM PDT 4/3 (1:00AM GMT 4/4)

FIXES:

• Language Settings: Fixed an issue which could cause Home to crash when the console is configured to certain locales (JA-JP, ZH-HK, ZH-TW, JA, ZH-SG, ZH-HAN).

KNOWN ISSUES:

• Settings – Display & sound: The Audio output page is under construction and some of the new settings are not yet functional. New support is planned for Dolby Atmos for home theater, Dolby Atmos for headphones, and more in upcoming builds. An announcement will be made when these new features are ready to try out; enabling these settings now will have no effect.
• Wireless Display: The Wireless Display app fails to launch and immediately crashes to Home.

Last but not least, Microsoft’s Brad Rossetti shared that custom gamerpics will roll out very soon to Preview Alpha users. “An ETA on Custom gamerpics being turned on for the Alpha ring is now next week as we work through some fine tuning,” he explained. Let us know in the comments if you’re looking forward to get more personalization options on Xbox Live.

Today’s release of the UWP Community Toolkit is the fourth, bringing it up to version 1.4. In it, the team has added a few improvements for the controls added in 1.3 as well as some new developers tools.

Here is a list of the new features:

1. Carousel: A new control that presents items in a list, where the selected item is always in the center and other items are flowing ­around it. This reacts not only to the content but also to layout changes, so it can adapt to different form factors automatically. The carousel can be horizontal or vertical.
2. ViewExtensions: ApplicationViewExtensions, StatusBarExtensions & TitleBarExtensions provide a declarative way of setting AppView, StatusBar & TitleBar properties from XAML.
3. NetworkHelper: Provides functionality to monitor changes in network connection, and allows users to query for network information without additional lookups.
4. Saturation: Provides a behavior to selectively saturate a XAML element. We also introduced the CompositionBehaviorBase to ease creation of new composition-based behaviors (Blur now uses this).
5. Twitter streaming API support: Twitter Service was missing support for Twitter’s streaming service; we added support for live tweets and events.
6. Search box for Sample App: The new Sample App allows you to search for a sample directly from the main menu.

The toolkit also includes a new ‘dev only’ projects called Microsoft.Toolkit.UWP.DeveloperTools including a Focus Tracker to display information about your application’s focus control and the Alignment Grid to align controls on the page.

The full changelog can be read on GitHub where the open source UWP Community Toolkit is available for download as well.

Microsoft Planner, the Trello-like organizational planning tool in Office 365, has just received a sweet update today. It’s finally possible to assign multiple people to a task, which is a no-brainer for a team collaboration app. According to the Planner team, the addition was one of the most requested features from Office 365 customers, and we can say that we definitely agree (OnMSFT just moved to Office 365, if you missed the news).

Microsoft is just getting started with Planner, and you can expect a lot more new features to be added in the coming months. “Our goal is to support additional collaboration, and we will continue to develop features and enhancements that our users want,” shared the Planner team. According to the UserVoice website, the team is currently working on email notifications and alert options, guest access, mobile apps and more. Feel free to share your feedback on Planner on this same website!

In celebration of Beam on Xbox One going live, the streaming service is taking over the Xbox Wire blogs. For the full week, Beam will be hosting themed days to promote the service and give away participation prizes for viewers.

Beam is the livestreaming app with nearly no delay between host and viewers. The FTL protocol was created with more interaction between the two in mind, adorned with fun features such as triggering events in the streamer’s game, activating soundboards, and even the potential to control robots in the streamer’s room. Beam is also a major feature of the Windows 10 Creators Update, coming next week.

The daily Xbox Wire posts will be replaced with details about Beam, how to use it, and learning its features. Furthermore, Beam streamers are hosting #BeamThemeWeek events with nearly 2,000 Beam Pro codes, Xbox Live Gold 3-month codes, and ID@Xbox game codes available to win via viewer chat.

Here is the lineup for the week:

• Mighty Monday: Vanquish the Monday blues by getting heroic! This could mean being a superhero (Anti-Procrastination Man, anyone?), paying tribute to your personal heroes, or even cosplaying as a character from mythology.
• Tropical Tuesday: BYOP (Bring Your Own Parrot. Or pineapple. Palm tree, even.)
• Onesie Wednesday: Try saying that five times fast! We think this day is fairly self-explanatory.
• Thursday of the Dead: Zombies, and monsters, and ghouls! Oh my!
• Fancy Friday: Time to suit up! Feel free to be as swanky or gaudy as you like.

If you want to join in, all you have to do is participate in any streamer’s chat with the theme name. Also, you can host your own stream with custom category tags made specifically for the event.

We’ll learn more about Beam throughout the next five days, so be on the lookout for daily news.

Windows Time Service, the time protocol that provides automatic network clock synchronization for Windows PCs seems to be affected by some issues today (via The Next Web). Many users on Twitter and Reddit, noticed that time.windows.com was returning the wrong time on their PCs , and it’s not clear if all Windows users are being affected. On our own PCs, the clock is functioning normally though we’re seeing the following error:

Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue, which could not only affect Windows machines but also Internet Information Services servers. For consumers, wrong time synchronization could lead to many problems with apps and security features. “Time synchronization is critical for the proper operation of many Windows services and line-of-business applications,” explains Microsoft on its Windows IT Center.

If your system clock is out of date on your PC, you can check your Date and Time settings and check if you can sync your clock with time.windows.com. If you get an error, you may try to sync with another time service. We’ve reached Microsoft for comment and we’ll update this story if we learn more about the issue.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson told us that “we investigated and quickly resolved the issue our time service experienced.” We just checked the Date and time settings and our own PCs and everything seems back to normal.

If you have yet to purchase Minecraft on your Xbox One, now may be the time to check the Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack on the US Microsoft Store. For a limited time, you can purchase the bundle for $29.99 and get the Minecraft Battle Map Pack Season Pass ($10 value) for free along your purchase, giving you a lot more content to enjoy in the sandbox game (via Xbox Wire).

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack is slightly more expensive than the $19.99 standard Xbox One Edition of the game, but it comes with the following fan-favorite DLCs:

• Battle & Beasts Skin Pack
• Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack
• Natural Texture Pack
• City Texture Pack
• Fantasy Texture Pack
• Festive Mash-up
• Halo Mash-up

As for the Minecraft Battle Map Pack Season Pass, it includes four map packs (that’s 12 maps in total) for the Battle Mini Game, where you can battle against up to seven players. The offer will be available through April 15 at the US Microsoft Store and other participating retailers including Best Buy, GameStop or Walmart.com. Following your purchase, you’ll receive a digital download code for the Minecraft Battle Map Pack Season Pass within ten days. Sound off in the comments if you think this a deal Xbox One owners shouldn’t miss.

If you’ve been thinking of purchasing a subscription to Outlook Premium, then you should be aware that Microsoft has just extended the promotional pricing on the service through June. This latest news comes right as the deadline on the original promotion expired on March 31st, ultimately meaning that you can now still pay $19.95 a year for the premium email service (via Thurrott.com)

Outlook Premium is an enhanced email service which syncs your own personalized email domain (such as Jane@Doe_Family.com) with your Outlook.com mailbox (as well as hotmail.com, live.com, or msn.com) for up to five users, and removes banner ads from your Outlook.com mailbox. The service came out of a preview stage in February, but was first limited to the US and most recently expanded to six new countries across the globe.

Interestingly enough, if you check the full details at checkout for the service, you will see that it’s a 1-year auto-renewal subscription at the promotional rate, meaning you will end up paying $19.95 a year for life, which is much lower than the usual price of $49.95 a year. So, if you’re willing to shell out the money for the service, be sure to head over to this Microsoft web page now and get the process started before time runs out on the latest promotion!

(Update: The app appears to be working for our commenters now. Does it work for you?)

The latest update for the Netflix app for Windows 10 PCs brings the ‘Download & Go’ feature that was launched for Android and iOS apps a few months ago. The feature brings support for offline streaming so that you can download your favorite movies, TV shows, and documentaries and watch at a later time when you’re off network specially during flights or when you’re on the move.

Downloading a video is seamless. All you need to do is click the small download button displayed on video details screen, and it will be downloaded for offline viewing. You can see all your downloaded videos in the ‘My Downloads’ section of the app accessible from the hamburger menu. You can also specify the download quality – Standard or High – depending on your internet connection and storage capacity.

However, all is not hunky-dory for Windows users still. One, the feature has come through only on Windows 10 app for PCs and not for Mobile. Since, the Netflix app is not on UWP, there are two separate apps for desktops and smartphones, and as of now, the feature hasn’t arrived on Windows 10 Mobile app. It’s a shame because the smartphone app is actually where people need offline streaming more to catch their video-fix during daily commutes and long flights. Second, the download just doesn’t work!

While the app is updated to mimic the download and viewing experience on Android and iOS app, each time you attempt to download something, an error pops up. I’ve tried this with several videos of different kinds, but no go. Maybe, a quick fix will take care of the issue, but we know for sure that the feature is here finally. For Windows 10 Mobile, we’ll have to wait I guess.

Does the download option work for you? Tell us in the comments!

Download
QR-Code

Netflix

Developer:
Netflix, Inc.

Price:
Free

There are several PDF viewing and editing apps on the Windows Store, but there are only a few that offer inking and annotation support, and I just discovered a pretty good one.

Awkwardly named, Jack for PDF is a nice app for viewing and editing PDF files, including password-protected ones. You can edit the text of the document and add your own as well as add different figures like lines, circles, squares, and draw in the documents.

While editing, you can highlight, underline, or strikethrough the text or add more text and change the color and transparency of the added text. The app allows you to draw on the document, which is even more useful if you have a stylus or a Surface Pen. You can change the transparency of the drawn elements, add figures, and change the color of contour and fill of added figures.

You can also change the scale of the document or the brightness of the background document, and view the entire change history with the ability to undo or redo changes.

Made for Windows 10, the app supports Windows Hello and Cortana, and contains no advertising. A universal app, you can download Jack for PDF on your Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile devices.

I found it better, and more functional, than Inky, another UWP PDF reader that I wrote about sometime back. Jack for PDF is a free app, so there’s no reason for you to not give it a whirl. Let us know how your experience is.

Download
QR-Code

Jack for PDF

Developer:
Andrii Leshchinskiy

Price:
Free

Welcome back to our Windows 10 news recap. We are continuing the trend of our weekly “Windows 10 news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Windows 7 edges closer to 50% market share while Windows 10 increases marginally

The latest NetMarketShare stats have been released and it shows an interesting picture of what’s happening in the world of Windows. Windows 7 is getting ever-closer to the 50% market share; Windows 10, on the otherhand, has increased usage slightly, although, it is within the margin of error.

Windows 10 now accounts for more than 50% of Steam users

Painting a slightly different picture to NetMarketShare, the Steam Hardware Survey shows Windows 10 64-Bit usage increasing a fair bit for Steam users, as it is now used by over 50% of the active Steam population, while Windows 7 drops slightly.

Ride sharing service Lyft is coming to Windows 10

Uber has been part of the Windows 10 platform for some time now, offering an app on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile – now, Uber competitor Lyft is also bringing an official app to Windows 10.

Minecraft announces next big update, the 1.1 Discovery Update for Windows 10 and Pocket Edition

Minecraft on Windows 10 (as well as the Pocket Edition) is receiving its next big update for players of the hit sandbox game. Here is the changelog:

• Adventure in Woodland Mansions: Trade with the new Cartographer villager to get treasure maps, follow the map, and journey to the woodland mansion. Battle Illagers – the villagers gone bad – to claim fantastic treasure.
• Exploration: Beef up your storage with Shulker Boxes, Encounter Llamas (!!!) (OMG) (SERIOUSLY OMG) in the wild and make llama trains, Dyeable Beds, Smelt ingots to reclaim materials from tools, build colorful structures with Glazed Terracotta or Concrete blocks, and enchant your equipment with Frostwalking or Mending.
• Add-Ons: Movement will become data-driven, meaning you’ll be able to create remixed movement properties in your Add-Ons.
• And adding a third gameplay mode, Adventure Mode, for folks who like to make custom games and scenarios.

It’s official: Windows 10 Creators Update to begin official rollout on April 11th

Saving the best till last. The much-awaited Windows 10 Creators Update will begin its rollout to those not part of the Insider program on April 11th, according to Microsoft.

That’s all the Windows 10 news for this week – we’ll be back next week with more!

Welcome to our weekly Xbox news recap series, where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Xbox. Let’s get started.

Creators Update launched and ready to go

The Creators Update has launched on Xbox One, with all of the new features rolling out steadily throughout the week. The update is being called the March Update, and it includes a ton of new features to help empower Xbox One users to be a bit more creative. The highlight of the update is most certainly its support for Beam Streaming, which should give the streaming service a whole lot more activity.

Destiny 2 trailer launched

If you’re like me, you spent the majority of this week giddy about Bungie’s newest title. After years of gallivanting throughout the solar system in Destiny, the sequel has finally gotten its proper announcement. Two trailers have been put out so far, and they’re pretty hype-worthy. We’ll be getting our first look at gameplay this May.

Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale game releasing on April 18th

If you’re a fan of Telltale, you should keep your eye out for their newest title – the Guardians of the Galaxy game. The game will release its first episode on April 18th, giving the world the first taste of Telltale’s spin on one of the most beloved Marvel franchises to be introduced to us in a long time.

Xbox admits its Xbox One mistakes, and pledges to “do right.”

The announcement of the Xbox One was a disaster. It was seen as a predatory and out-of-touch approach to the future of the Xbox Brand, and it was universally rejected. Years afterwards – where the Xbox One has recovered entirely from that reputation, and enjoys a loving fanbase – Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi – Corporate VP of Xbox – pushed a post out to LinkedIn about the experience.It’s an interesting read, and it highlights Xbox’s intention in the future to “Do right,” “Make exceptional products,” “Create connection,” and “Surprise and delight customers.”

Picture in picture not coming to Xbox One now, but you can help make it happen

Xbox’s Mike Ybarra went on Twitter recently to confirm that they’re not currently working on bring a picture-in-picture mode to Xbox One. While he didn’t offer any hope to the users who have been wanting this feature, he gave them the opportunity to vote for it and make sure that the team knows that it’s in demand.

Thanks for joining us. To keep up to date with all the latest Xbox news, keep a close eye on our Xbox One news hub.

Users of Microsoft’s Skype communication service have begun complaining that malware, served via ads in the program, is making its way on to their PCs.

For those who aren’t aware, Microsoft displays advertisements alongside conversations and on the programs start page. These ads are only present in the traditional, Win32 desktop program of Skype, not in the Windows 10 version of Skype.

The first report of malware being spread through Skype’s ads came up on reddit, with one user saying it happened after turning on the PC and Skype loaded, through its option to open automatically on startup:

FYI: Skype currently serving infected ads from sysadmin

As seen above, the user has worked out a method of blocking the ads from showing, although, it requires some changes that many Skype users won’t be aware of. Additionally, Skype’s support team have denied it could be ads causing the issue.

Ads in Skype are loaded through embedded Internet Explorer object and, as most of us know, Internet Explorer isn’t known for being the most secure browser.

In a statement given to ZDNet, Microsoft avoided accepting responsibility for the ads showing, saying:

We’re aware of a social engineering technique that could be used to direct some customers to a malicious website. We continue to encourage customers to exercise caution when opening unsolicited attachments and links from both known and unknown sources and install and regularly update antivirus software.

Have you been affected by malware being spread through Skype? Let us know below!

One of the individuals who helped shape the way we see Microsoft today has passed away. Pam Edstrom (left), co-founder of Waggener Edstrom Communications, died at 71 earlier this week due to lung cancer.

Edstrom first joined Microsoft in 1982 as public relations director when it was still a small technology company. She was described as always being ahead of the trends and taking a personal approach to PR, a style she carried with her when helping co-found WE Communications in Bellevue.

New York Times technology reporter John Markoff was just one of many that knew her well. Her approach to working with the press resulted in the First Response team at WE Communications, a group of people directly involved with handling news and responding when events occur. “She was the architect, she created the image for Microsoft,” Markoff recalled to The Seattle Times.

WE Communications continues to handle significant portions of Microsoft’s communications in her stead, building on what Edstrom has contributed for hopefully years to come.

As the title implies, some of us more than enthusiastic followers of Microsoft news are left a bit underwhelmed (because whelmed is not a word) at the final prospect of the company’s latest update to Windows 10. While the Creators Update brings the platform forward in a direction that emphasizes production, gaming, creativity and overall cohesiveness that has been lacking thus far; the new feature additions of in-app Compact Overlays, Blue Light Filter, Game Mode, 3D Paint and a slew of Edge browser improvements to list a few are still only half the story of the Creators Update, with the other half of tantalizing features left somewhere in the deep recesses of the company’s development rooms.

When Microsoft first introduced the Creators Update back in October 2016, it did so with the overwhelming focus of introducing 3D support to the OS and allowing developers to dip their toes into what the company is touting as the next platform for creativity in mixed reality.

However, it was the lesser touted plans for the operating system which included a user behavior change with how contacts and platform level communication would be engaged with, a cool new real-time 3D mapping mobile app, 3D support in Office apps as well as the promise of an army of mixed reality headsets that may have stolen audiences attention and unfortunately, Microsoft has chosen to ship the Creators Update without any of them in tow.

As a bit of a recap, during Microsoft’s fall announcement of the Creators Update, the company also brought out Microsoft general manager Megan Saunders to show off a cool handheld 3D mapping app on the newly released HP Elite x3. Here’s a look at the demo, overlaid with some snarky comments by the guys over at TWiT:

Saunders walks around a couple of real-life objects and simply pointed the 3D mapping enabled Elite x3 at them and began mapping objects in real time that would eventually be transferred to the updated version of Microsoft Paint in the Creators Update. In what seemed like a seamless real-world demo of the app and supporting software, Saunders gave many on-the-fence Windows phone users a breath of hope that Windows 10 Mobile would still be a platform worth investing in.

Sadly, Saunders demo remains a demo with no app release date, any idea of how the software actually works or whether it’s even in development at the moment. Without the app, Microsoft’s Paint 3D efforts are somewhat hamstrung and could cripple its Windows 10 3D messaging.

Next up was the My People app, which has taken on several faces since the introduction of Windows 10 three years ago. Reintroduced last fall during a 7 and half minute demo, My People appeared to be an evolution of Windows 10’s original vision of system level communication for the OS that included bundling efforts with Skype, Messaging, and Mail apps for Windows 10.

For whatever reason, the Windows teams love to show off this integration with almost every update and they point out how evolved the idea has become since the last time it was mentioned, but with each new release thus far, the feature continues to sit on the shelf. Perhaps worse off, Windows Insiders have yet to even test out the integration in any form in three years and since cutting it from the Creators Update, there is no indication of when it will be re-introduced or if it’s still in production.

Mixed reality headsets were another big showing for Microsoft during the Creators Update and have since been met with silence by supposed partnering OEM’s. Perhaps, many are waiting to co-brand their marketing efforts with the release of the Creators Update to spur PC sells, but of the companies mentioned to be partnering with Microsoft to drive down the price of VR and AR headsets, almost none have brought to light any future facing plans for devices.

Even when given the chance to showcase proof-of-concept devices at CES months later, most partnering OEMs were seen chasing Amazon Alexa integration instead. The omission of partnering OEMs for mixed reality may also put a hamper on the HoloTour built into Windows as well getting people to check the new HoloLens configurations in the updated Settings menu.

Furthermore, it could have been the tertiary mentions and glances to software that got a lot a people’s excitement meters peaking such as Xbox Arenas that allowed for game tournament configurations, a passing glance at Groove Music Maker, 3D PowerPoint or even the proposed tighter Edge and reminder integration. All have since either been removed from test builds or never to be mentioned again during subsequent system announcements.

Again, the Windows 10 Creators Update brings much to the table for Windows 10 users and lays even further groundwork for expanding Microsoft’s ecosystem, but it’s hard to not feel a little let down that many of the seemingly exciting and consumer facing features some have been waiting on since last Fall are being shelved without so much as an explanation.

Even more worrisome for fans is that the Windows team has not even hinted at when these projects will see the light of day. Some are expecting many of the missing features to show up in a Redstone 3 release or future Windows 10 updates, but without a word from the Windows team, I guess we can only wait for the next demo.

(hat tip to PC World)

If you’re a fan of city building video games, you’ll be pleased to learn that Cities: Skylines will launch on the Xbox One on April 21 (via Windows Central). The game is already available to pre-order on the Xbox Store and will cost you $39.99. While that seems a bit expansive compared to the $29.99 standard PC version, this Xbox One Edition also includes the game’s first expansion called After Dark which adds a day-night lifecycle to the gameplay.

Huzzah! Cities: Skylines for the Xbox One will release on April 21st and you can Pre-Order your copy TODAY!https://t.co/vFklymwNAF pic.twitter.com/CLkYyITTZf

— Cities: Skylines (@CitiesSkylines) March 31, 2017

As you can expect, the popular PC game has been optimized for the Xbox One controller and you can see some gameplay elements in the trailer below the official game description:

Cities: Skylines – Xbox One Edition puts you in charge of a growing city – from the ground-breaking of its first streets to the ever-changing needs of thousands of citizens. Design, build, and manage the city of your dreams, from public services to civic policies, and challenge yourself to grow from a simple town to a bustling metropolitan hub.

It’s great to see that the Xbox One is welcoming more diverse games, and we’re looking forward to see how Xbox fans will respond to this new addition. Let us know in the comments if you plan to purchase Cities: Skylines on your Xbox One.

Download
QR-Code

Cities: Skylines – Xbox One Edition

Developer:
Paradox Interactive

Price:
Free

The political climate around digital search and seizures is becoming a tumultuous battlefield for those forced to choose a side between the veil of privacy or the allure of security.

One of those tumultuous battles is being fought in Iowa as legislation is being brought to the Iowa Constitution which would offer protections against the unreasonable search and seizure of citizens electronic communications and data. The protection is being pushed through Iowa legislature as a special constitutional amendment.

While it would seem normal everyday citizens and consumers appear to be losing large battles such as these to deep-pocketed and heavily entrenched players, Iowan’s are being backed by the firepower of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in this fight.

According to the Des Moines Register,

Power BI’s latest update is something that should add a good bit of convenience to the usual Power BI experience. The feature is called View Related Content, and as you might imagine, it lets you quickly and easily check out content that’s related to what you’re looking at. It can be found in the Preview Feature Settings section of Power BI, and can be opted in and out of at will, should you decide against using it in the future.

The update is a part of the Power BI preview, so you should be aware that bugs are likely to show up. That being said, it’s now available in all regions and is ready to go for the adventurous users who think it’s something they’d be interested in. If you want to learn the specifics about Power BI’s newest feature, you can read up on it through the Power BI blog post. If you want to chat with the community about the feature and suggest something else to be added, you can join the discussion on their forum.

Being the world’s most used desktop operating system often means that each day a new bulls eye is drawn on its back as attackers seek to use it a vessel for their own personal gains. The Microsoft Windows and security teams are constantly dealing with an exploit or nefarious piece of code daily, and recently a zero-day vulnerability cropped up that should have the teams and website developers working to patch sites hosted on Microsoft IIS 6 web servers from attacks but they most likely won’t.

According to a report from PCWorld, a proof-of-concept exploit has been published regarding Microsoft’s Internet Information Services 6.0. While that version is not being supported it is still being used these days and the exploit still poses a big issue.