The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition is on the brink of release and already the game is seeing a clear bias towards Microsoft’s gaming platform. The new version of Skyrim will be coming with a higher resolution and improved graphics. Perhaps more importantly, it is providing support for console gamers to create mods. This is in a similar fashion to the Fallout 4 announcement earlier this year. However, compared to PlayStation 4, Xbox One is showing to be the better of the two options.

In preparation of the game’s release on Friday, Bethesda is sifting through countless mods to approve in advance. Currently there are sixty-five mods for the Xbox One compared to only the ten mods available for PlayStation 4.

Popular gaming news site IGN points out that this is likely due to the difference between Sony and Microsoft’s acceptance policies. For Xbox One, mods are allowed to use third-party assets and install up to 5GB of data, whereas the PlayStation version is restricted to only official game files and cannot exceed a 1GB limit.

These weren’t in the plans that Bethesda had originally anticipated and it seemed last month that we might not even see mods coming to PlayStation 4.

Like you, we are disappointed by Sony’s decision given the considerable time and effort we have put into this project, and the amount of time our fans have waited for mod support to arrive. We consider this an important initiative and we hope to find other ways user mods can be available for our PlayStation audience. However, until Sony will allow us to offer proper mod support for PS4, that content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim on PlayStation 4 will not be available. We will provide an update if and when this situation changes.

But it seems an arrangement was made betwen the developer and Sony after all, albeit quite a bit more restrictive than its competitor.

For a gamer, this speaks volumes to the availability of the title. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is commonly accepted as one of the more moddable games to date. Players on PC enhance their game play through more lighting updates, intense AI reconfigurations, and custom adventures to dive into. With the Special Edition opening up modding to console players, it’s no doubt that they’ll want to have the most options available to them.

So if you’re interested in playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition with the most mods, the best bet would be to buy the Xbox One version. It won’t be available to play until Friday but you can pre-order it now on the Xbox Store.

The day most Microsoft enthusiasts, fans, and watchers have been waiting for almost all year is now just less than 24 hours away. While Microsoft has detailed that it is set to unveil “what’s next for the future of Windows 10” in New York City on Wednesday, many specifics on the event have still been kept under the covers. What follows is a look at what I expect (and don’t expect) while in attendance at my first ever Microsoft Press event.

What NOT to expect

I find it more appropriate to begin by mentioning what most Microsoft followers such as myself seem to have become familiar with, the things that will not happen at the event. To begin with, I highly doubt that Microsoft will showcase any phones at this event. So, let’s put it to rest, there will not be a Surface Phone unveil on Wednesday.

Second on the list is the Microsoft Band 3 and fitness wearables. As we recently reported, Microsoft recently made it official that there would not be a Band 3 this year, and that the Band 2 had been pulled from the Microsoft store. This so, I don’t don’t think the company will have a change of heart and suddenly unveil a wearable that will shock the world.

Third up is any new information in regards to Project Scorpio. Again, since this event is themed towards the “future of Windows 10,” anything related to Xbox hardware will most likely not be unveiled at this event. There could, however, be some more information on Xbox Play Anywhere, or Xbox related gaming on Windows 10.

Next up is Surface Book 2, and Surface Pro 5.  As has been the theme amongst Microsoft watchers throughout the last few months, it is widely believed Microsoft will not announce a Surface Book 2 or a Surface Pro 5 this year, but rather wait until Spring of 2017. Given Microsoft’s recent sales on the existing lineup of Surface devices, there could, however, be a Surface line refresh with the newer Kaby Lake chips, but that’s pure speculation.

Last up is any mentions of Office and Office 365. Since Microsoft already told us that there would be a separate Office event on November 2nd, I don’t expect to hear much from the Office team at this event.

What you can expect

Topping the list of what can be expected at the event is a new Surface All in One. While Microsoft has remained quiet about the existence of such a device, we’ve reported on this rumored AIO “Surface Cardinal” device at length. Based on what we have already reported on, the newest Surface-branded device might be similar to an iMac, and might be aimed for the living room, complete with a large touchscreen display, support for pen and inking, and a slim design.

Next up is an unveil of new Surface-branded keyboard and mouse. Again, thanks to FCC filings, details on both the keyboard and mouse have leaked, so this one could be much less of a surprise.

Third up is more information on the Paint UWP, HoloLens, and Windows Holographic, and perhaps and unveiling of Microsoft’s rumored new 3D ecosystem, code-named Beihei. Fueling this is the fact that an early version of the Paint UWP had leaked, and the fact that Microsoft’s press invite for the event teased creativity with an “Imagine what you will do” header image.

Additionally, since Microsoft recently opened up Windows Holographic to other manufacturers, we could also hear about plans for the future of Windows Holographic, and what may happen with HoloLens moving into the future.

Going back to creativity, since some Microsoft patents for “Paint 3D” were recently revealed, we could also expect to hear more about how HoloLens, or Paint, and how the two can be used for creating and using a 3D objects or environment.

To wrap things up, a Home Hub, or a product similar to Amazon Echo might also appear at this event. As we previously have reported, details on a project very similar to what a Home Hub can be was recently spotted on a Microsoft employee’s LinkedIn page.

I’ll be at the event live, so be sure to follow us on Twitter and across social media to stay up to date on all the news coming out of Microsoft’s October event. And, stay tuned for a post on Thursday, which will give you a personal look at what it’s like to attend a Microsoft Press event.

What are you expecting tomorrow? Will Microsoft pull out some surprises? Let us know what you think will happen in the comments below.

At its 5th annual Government Cloud Forum, Microsoft met with over 600 Azure Government customers and partners to highlight some new capabilities and developments for its 6 million users. Azure Government has added a plethora of capabilities and wanted to share them and other highlights on how Azure Government has made big steps in providing the best technology services for local, state, and US federal government operations.

Recently, Microsoft signed a CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) agreement with the US State of Georgia. Microsoft now has 24 signed CJIS agreements in addition to the 13 Microsoft Government Cloud services in the FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) compliance certification. Microsoft believes that Azure Government sets them apart from their competitors and that “not all clouds are created equal” (check out their Azure in Government fact sheet).

Microsoft is expanding its Government Cloud services with two new announcements:

• General Availability of Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS): Now available to Azure Government customers, Log Analytics and the Operations Management Suite Portal helps customers collect and analyze data generated by resources in cloud and on-premises environments. The service provides real-time insights using integrated search and custom dashboards to help customers readily analyze millions of records across all workloads and servers regardless of their physical location.
• General Availability of the Azure Government Marketplace:   Now available to Azure Government customers, Azure Government Marketplace brings the quality, choice, and strength of the Azure partner ecosystem to our IT & Developer government customers using a unified location. We’ve partnered with some of the top ISVs to provide Azure Government customers more options for finding the right solution and quickly spinning up applications that suit their needs. A sample of partners includes: F5 Networks, Cisco Systems, ESRI, Citrix, Barracuda, and Splunk.

In this video, General Manager for National Cloud Programs at Microsoft, Doug Hauger, talks about Microsoft Azure Government products and services, including CRM Online Government and Office 365 Government, and how the Microsoft Cloud for Government meets the security and compliance requirements and needs of US federal, state, and local government agencies.

At the US Police Chiefs showcase, Microsoft signed three police agencies to utilize their Azure Government offerings; Los Angeles, Memphis, and Miami-Dade Police Departments. In addition, two US government agencies, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are also taking advantage of Azure Government, as well as other Azure cloud services.

If you are interested in seeing what else Microsoft can do for your local, state, or federal government agency, sign up for the Azure Government trial. If you still have questions about Microsoft Cloud for Government, you can contact Microsoft and a representative will get in touch with you to discuss your questions and concerns. You can also contact Microsoft Government on Twitter.

The Microsoft Local Tech Gov Summit, a live stream event, taking place on November 16, 2016, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST. Register today.

Microsoft Canada is planning to assist the largest city in Canada with an impactful display of support for the local economy. The Mayor of Toronto John Tory has just announced that Microsoft will be providing cloud-based tools and services for their small business owners.

The collaboration was a major highlight of the Enterprise Toronto Small Business Forum being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre today. Enterprise Toronto is an entrepreneurial service funded by the City of Toronto that helps small businesses to improve the local economy.

The press release reads:

“The way we work, collaborate and communicate is changing and it is important that small businesses have technology in place that empowers them to be more agile, cost-efficient and competitive in today’s digital world,” said Janet Kennedy, President of Microsoft Canada. “We are excited to bring our productivity suite of services to the City of Toronto’s program and look forward to continuing our commitment to helping Canada’s small and medium-sized businesses grow and prosper with modern technology.”

Microsoft is offering the entrepreneurs access to tools, services, and even their own blog geared toward the initiative.

Happy to announce City is partnering with @microsoftcanada to provide cloud-based tools & services for small businesses. #sbfTO pic.twitter.com/UAxMai1K5j

— John Tory (@JohnTory) October 25, 2016

The Small Business Forum 2016 event has over 2,500 attendees and  is currently already underway. It will be running until 4 p.m. with speeches, panels, and seminars designed to assist small business persons in growing their business through the latest technology and strategies.We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as it progresses.

Have you ever imagined being able to use your Surface device with others of its kind to have a multi-monitor set up? The potential might not be too far beyond Microsoft’s sights according to a recent report. Brazilian site Tecmundo has discovered a patent written up earlier this year in June by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.

The patent proposition describes the possibility of attaching Surface tablet devices together to extend the display, share data, and combine specifications. It reads:

Even though users may have access to a wide range of computing devices, conventional techniques to interact with these devices were provided by the computing devices separately. Accordingly, techniques are described herein to support physical and communicative connections between computing devices. For example, mobile computing devices such as tablets and phones may employ a slate form factor. A connection device may be used to provide a physical (e.g., magnetic) and communicative coupling between the devices, thereby permitting the devices to be used in combination, such as to expand an available display area, share processing and memory resources, and so on.

According to the patent application, Microsoft have a few ideas on how they could go about achieveing the extended displays for mobile devices. Not only are they considering the more data-centric communicative sharing, but they are also looking into creating a physical attachment between the two devices.

It’s been suggested that with the use of a magnetic coupling, the devices could be attached and enable communication as long as they remain intact with each other. There’s also some fascinating figure images that show the potential for making tablets into what can only be described as a rotational hinge attachment. This means that a digital keyboard could be used on the bottom tablet while the top is used for a monitor.

Of course, it’s safe to say that we shouldn’t get too excited about the possibility of seeing coupled Surface devices anytime soon. Not all proposals always turn out to merit investment. The patent was proposed in June and so far we haven’t seen evidence that the multi-monitor devices are on the near horizon. Still, it’s a fun prospect to think about and the development shouldn’t be ruled out completely just yet.

The popular VLC media player app recently made its way to Xbox One via the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform. That was good news for Xbox One owners, even if the app is in a relatively early stage. Now, there’s an update available that fixes a few issues and enhances the app’s controls.

Windows Central was kind enough to post the details of what’s been updated in Version 2.1.1 of the app (via MSPU) and here it is:

• Added fast seek using gamepad triggers
• B will now close the playback overlay when it’s displayed
• Fix default control panel button focus
• Improved media discovering performances
• Fixed tab colors
• General performance improvement
• Fix crash when browsing password protected network drives
• Fix mixed up channels when playing 5.1/7.1
• Fix too long media discovery
• Fix wrong external drive being browsed when 2 or more drives are plugged in
• Fix various hardware acceleration bugs
• Fix crash when displaying teletext subtitles
• Fix inconsistent background audio behavior
• Fix duplicated display of network drives

The update might not show up for you immediately, and so be patient. Let us know in the comments when you get the newest version, and what you think.

Download
QR-Code

VLC UWP

Developer:
VideoLAN

Price:
Free

Microsoft’s October 2016 event in New York City is now just two days away, but the rumors for what devices might be revealed at the event continue to fluctuate.

While many continue to speculate over what new hardware Microsoft may present in a couple of days, the company may have revealed its showcase hand in new trademark findings.

Trademarks, which were not filed by Microsoft, but lodged by an independent Slovenian company across multiple countries, include “Surface Studio,” and “Surface Dial.” While it may be a longshot, “Surface Dial” could be for the rumored Surface Phone, and “Surface Studio” may be for the rumored all in one Surface device. Again, since these trademarks are not filed by Microsoft, it remains unclear if they could lead to official product names.

The folks over at TheNextWeb have also discovered some Microsoft trademarks for “Surface Laptop” and “Paint 3D,” perhaps hinting at the new Surface products which might be unveiled on Wednesday.

According to a blog post by Brian Conroy, (The Trademark Ninja,) who is a commercial litigation lawyer specializing in trademark law and intellectual property, two Microsoft trademarks filed in October include “Surface Laptop,” and “Paint 3D.”

Albeit wild, according to The Trademark Ninja, Microsoft could be covering up their tracks and is using the Slovenian company to file these trademarks. But, even if this is not the case, Microsoft has the right to shoot down and fight the trademark application that might conflict with its own product names. What do you think of these trademarks? Let us know what you think by dropping us a comment in the section below!

There is the possibility that “Surface Laptop” trademark might just be used to cover up the name of an impending device. Secondly, the trademark application for “Paint 3D” perhaps hints at the new name for the rumored Paint UWP which Microsoft may be releasing soon.

Microsoft has been working hard to establish Azure as a trusted and certified cloud solution, and has picked up industry leading certifications here in the US and around the globe.

Whether its certifications that guarantee patient privacy for healthcare providers or security certifications for law enforcement agencies, Microsoft’s Azure and Azure Government are getting more and more government contracts.

And now Microsoft is going beyond just certifications, and actually opening up two isolated data centers to meet the United State’s Department of Defense’s needs. The new comes from FedScoop.com, via Bloomberg, which notes that the two new data centers will be able to store Impact Level 5 data. This is the second highest level of sensitive U.S. government information and could lead to an increasing number of federal contracts.

FedScoop’s report also notes that Microsoft has already achieved some impressive numbers for its Azure Government. FedScoop notes:

…nearly 6 million users across more than 7,000 federal, state and local government customer accounts now use Microsoft’s Government Cloud… Microsoft has signed Criminal Justice Information Services agreements in 23 states, covering more than 60 percent of the U.S. population.

Jason Zander, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Azure, notes that the last figure for Criminal Justice Information Services agreements is “nearly six times the number signed by our nearest cloud competitor.”

The two facilities will go online sometime in 2017 and provide Microsoft Azure Government and Office 365 US Government Defense services among others. And these data centers will house DoD National Security System data used by both DoD agencies and qualified contractors.

October might be about to end, but that does not mean the Xbox Deals will stop coming. Major Nelson has just taken to his blog to announce November’s Games with Gold Lineup. Titles for next month include Super Dungeon Bros, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Monkey Island: SE, and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. We will allow you to judge how exciting these titles are for yourself, and have included download links, trailer, and descriptions for you after the video below.

Xbox One Titles:

Super Dungeon Bros ($19.99 ERP): November 1-30

Play on your own or with up to 4 friends in couch or online co-op as you raid the deepest dungeons of Rökheim. Wield wicked weapons with devastating destruction or exploit the punishing puzzles and terrifying traps that will slice and dice foes and bros alike. Fling your friends onto far off ledges and distant trap triggers, hurl your bros at advancing attackers or unleash your tag team tactics with the ultimate bro-op offensive! If really you’re up for the challenge, test your heavy metal in the deadly daily dungeon or master the way of the wicked weekly dungeon and climb to the peak of the global leaderboards.

Murdered: Soul Suspect: ($19.99 ERP): Available from November 16- December 15

A dark, supernatural detective thriller with a unique gameplay twist: solving your own murder from the afterlife. Ronan O’Connor, a detective with the Salem police, has his life brought to a brutal end by a masked killer. Caught in the purgatorial world of Dusk he must combine his investigative skills with powerful supernatural abilities to uncover the shocking link between his own death and a series of killings terrifying the town of Salem.

Xbox 360 Titles (Backward Compatible on Xbox One:)

Monkey Island: SE ($9.99 ERP): Available from November 1-15 

Relive the hilarious swashbuckling misadventures of the wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he attempts to become the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean! Back by popular demand, The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition faithfully re-imagines the internationally-acclaimed classic pirate adventure game from LucasArts in gorgeous HD detail.

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon ($14.99 ERP): Available from November 16-30

Welcome to an 80’s VHS vision of the future. The year is 2007 and you are Sargent Rex Colt, a Mark IV Cyber Commando who’s fighting against a cyborg army gone rogue. Your mission: get the girl, kill the baddies, and save the world. Experience every cliché of a VHS era vision of a nuclear future, where cyborgs, blood dragons, mutants, and Michael Biehn

These titles are available for free for a limited time only for those who are paid Xbox Live Gold members. Be sure to act fast once they are available for download and come back to WinBeta to let us know how the experience of playing these titles is going

Microsoft has partnered with Acclaim to introduce Microsoft badges for Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) to achieve certain certifications or pass select exams.

Acclaim is an independent badging platform owned by the company’s test-delivery partner, Pearson VUE, and provides a way to manage, share, and verify one’s Microsoft Certifications. Acclaim uses the Open Badges standards defined by Mozilla to offer digital badges. The web-enabled representation of an individual’s Microsoft certifications is made of an image and metadata uniquely linked to the person, and can be shared online, embedded in a résumé, or included on an email signature.

The digital badges will allow professionals to easily share the details of their skills in a trusted and verifiable manner to explore opportunities for career advancement. With Microsoft badges, professionals can find out which employers are looking for individuals with their skills, discover what kind of salary to expect to earn with those skills, as well as search for new job opportunities associated with their certification.

For now, MCPs who pass select exams or achieve the certifications, on or after October 21, 2016, will receive badges. However, beginning in November 2016, badges will be retroactively issued to those who passed the exams or achieved the certifications prior to October 21, 2016. After this pilot badge program, Microsoft will share details of additional badges in January 2017.

Welcome back to our weekly “Windows 10 news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s latest operating system. Let’s get started.

Huawei rumored to be planning high-end Windows 10 Matebooks for early 2017

It has been rumored that Huawei is planning on bringing 2 new MateBook devices in 2017, running Windows 10. The devices are said to not only be 2-in-1s and will come in 2 screen sizes: 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch. No price or imagery is available yet of the devices, but we should expect to see more in the not-so-distant future.

Microsoft sets the record straight on Windows 10 Game DVR

With Windows 10 came a new feature for gamers, known as Game DVR. It allows gamers on Windows 10 PCs to quickly record gameplay without having to install third-party software. For some, however, this new feature has apparently caused performance issues on some hardware configurations. In response to these concerns, Major Nelson published a blog post to address them. Major Nelson explains that Game DVR should not cause any performance issues on hardware that using the latest graphics drivers for the Anniversary Update, noting that users should see “equal performance”.

As shown above, it is also possible to disable the background recording and the Game Bar of the Game DVR. This, in theory, should stop any performance issues on hardware configurations that are affected.

Microsoft rolling out Focused Inbox to Outlook for Mac and web, Windows 10 coming soon

Microsoft has finally provided a timeframe on when Windows 10 will be receiving Focused Inbox support for Outlook. As has been the case for some time, however, platforms other than Windows, such as Mac and Android, will be receiving Focused Inboxes before Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. Windows platforms are slated to receive the update sometime in November – an exact date is not known at this point.

Focused Inboxes separates emails into 2 inboxes – the Focused Inbox is everything that is deemed important to the user and then another inbox, which shows the not-so-important emails, in order to help users stay focused on their work without being bombarded by numerous emails of low importance.

Viber for Windows 10 gains media gallery, more

Viber on Windows 10 has been updated to add several new features and make some changes. This latest update pushes the app to version 6.3, with the following changelog:

• Large emoticons in chat
• Media gallery in chat info screen
• Answer video calls with video to automatically open your front-facing camera
• Call directly from chat screenSticker support in toast notifications
• Terms and policy update

Here is the build that got released this week:

• Microsoft releases Windows 10 Fast Ring Insider build 14951 for PC and Mobile download it now

It has been a long time in the waiting, but finally, Microsoft has given the once age-old Xbox Forums a full makeover. Finally, we can wave goodbye to the inconsistent design of the old forums and hello to a more modern design that we’d expect to see on the web in 2016.

With this makeover, the Xbox Forums have received the following improvements:

• Improve categorisation
• Moved categories to the top menu, while using the rest of the screen for showing discussions and sub-categories
• Searching has been improved, making it faster to search

It appears that the new Xbox Forums are still a little premature, as we noticed several issues, such as Gateway Timeout errors, discussions failing to load and the forums being a little flaky in places. So, while the design is definitely an improvement, the overall mechanics of the forums have remained largely the same, with similar issues to the forums predecessor.

Here’s a look at the new design:

The Xbox Forums are designed to allow other Xbox users to provide support to each other, while also enticing game-specific discussion.

Let us know what you think of the latest Xbox Forums update in the comments below!

So, it’s Friday again and it’s time for some fun. A tipster going by the name of Marco C. sent us an email revealing that a Surface-like device may have replaced iPads in the animated adult series South Park.

It’s always fun to see South Park shamelessly putting products and logos of other companies in the series and once again, that happened. A device looking like a Microsoft Surface showed up in Season 20, Episode 5 of South Park at the 17:20-timemark.

We, unfortunately, cannot link to a free site to watch the episode itself, but if you own a Hulu or Amazon Prime subscription then the show is available on these platforms.

Up until now, only iPads were to be found as the tablets in the South Park universe, but this looks to be changing. The Surface line has got a lot of mainstream attention the last two years and it seems to be taking over the position of “the definition of a tablet” in the eyes of content creators and even regular consumers.

We hope to see more of these appearances in the future and we will sure report on them, too. So stay tuned!

Microsoft has a nice history lately of highlighting various innovative business uses of its Surface line of Windows 10 2-in-1s. Often, given how well Surface works for creative types, Microsoft profiles professionals who work in design and architecture, and their most recent piece keeps the trend alive.

This time around, Microsoft took some time to focus on the founder of DuChene Design Solutions, LLC, an independent design consultancy company that provides design work for landscape and design firms. As Microsoft puts it:

Patrick is all about productivity, efficiency and technology, which are key to making his business run. He enjoys flexibility, and says Surface is “awesome because I am able to move around the house to work where I feel like working, take it to the clubhouse where I live and have a drink and do some emails or write a speech, take it outside to my backyard and watch the boats come into the dock, and then manage my business at night by downloading files sent to me by clients and organizing them into my design schedule.” When I asked him what else he loves about the Surface Pro 4, he responded: “The screen, the screen, the screen! It is beautiful – the whites are so great, not bluish or yellowish like other laptops.”

Patrick uses a number of industry-specific and creative applications that work well on his Surface Pro 4, such as DynaSCAPE Design and Color, Lumion, SketchUp, and Shaderlight. For his business-oriented productivity, he uses Office:

“I can do my design base sheets, sketch on those base sheets for concepts for my clients or for myself, bring those sketches back into my software, finish the drawings, color the drawings, model the drawings and render the drawings ALL WITH ONE COMPUTER—not jumping back and forth from one system to the other.”

Patrick is clearly excited about using one machine to accomplish so many things, which the Surface Pro 4 is uniquely positioned to enable. He offers more advice to designers who might want to make a jump to a Surface device:

1. Create a base sheet for the property you are designing and take measurements and make notes on your Surface in the field with the Surface Pen. This will help expedite the design process later on and will help you capture that “feeling” you get in the space.
2. Use Drawboard PDF or Microsoft Paint – both of which come free and installed on the Surface – to do labeled concept sketches that you can easily email to a client for feedback. Collaborating with your clients electronically during the design process makes them feel attended to and can make the whole process more enjoyable and effective.
3. Make sure you purchase the right Surface configuration for your needs, as there are many hardware configuration options for different users and uses. If you are doing more intense tasks like 3D modeling or a lot of multitasking with design programs, I’d recommend you spring for the i7 with 16GB of RAM like I did. It will be plenty of power for almost anything you throw at it!

We concur with Patrick that the Surface Pro 4 is a well-rounded and capable device, and we too recommend it for anyone who needs to mix business tasks with creative design. Let us know in the comments if you, too, agree.

Formerly called OneClip, the app now named Cache has been leaked onto the web allowing anyone to install it. But what is it, and how does it work?

Cache is a tool that is designed to simplify your workflow by managing all your links, pictures, texts and other copy-paste items. It stores your objects in either a sidebar, like in the picture below, or in a regular window.

The tool is very polished for a beta program, and it works as expected. It features an MDL2 design like UWP apps but actually isn’t one. The app is a Win32 app designed to look like a Universal Windows Platform application but it isn’t a true Windows 10 experience. The real platform this application runs on can be seen by right-clicking everywhere in the app and looking the context menu design as well as simply looking at the title bar or settings page. Even some of the dialogues look like Windows 95.

I’ve encountered some issues with it, however, but nothing major or nothing a restart of the app couldn’t fix. When clicking the three-dot menu then on “Edit image,” nothing happens. You have to right-click the icon in order to customize the collection. Also, some weird issues like not begin able to remove any content from the collection also popped up but were fixed with closing the app from the task manager and opening it again. It gave me different errors like “Sorry, something went wrong. We’ve notified the team.”

As you can see in the screenshot above, I have already started using the tool as my daily accessory for school and work. It works very well and improves my workflow by quite a lot. Instead of having 20 different tabs open in Edge and then switching between them and searching for the info I need each time, I can just move everything over there and easily drag and drop what I need into the articles. Pretty handy.

Now, do note that Cache is not officially released by Microsoft yet and the package I downloaded is from an untrusted source. I could have an infected computer now and you may see a bunch of fake posts promoting cheap ways to go down in weight on OnMSFT from now on. I don’t think that is going to happen, but make sure you know that OnMSFT takes zero responsibility for you downloading this app and using it, no matter if it just makes your PC crash or if your bank account data is stolen.

Having cleared that up, you can follow this link and read more about the leak and installation itself.

If you think it may not be a good idea to get it now and you prefer to wait until Microsoft implements it into the system or Office themselves, that is also fine. The rumours say that it will be released in the Redstone 2 update, and that means it should show up for Insiders soon.

Microsoft has announced that it’s accepting applications for the 2017 Imagine Cup, its student technology competition now celebrating its 15th anniversary. Student teams can compete by building applications using Microsoft technologies, this year vying for a $100,000 top prize, double what it’s been in the past.

Microsoft has made some modifications to this year’s rules, first of all noting that it’s paramount that today’s students prepare for the future by building skills in cloud technologies, and so the company wants to “highly encourage all Imagine Cup projects to showcase one or more Microsoft Azure services within their solutions.”

Microsoft is also placing greater emphasis on the underlying technologies used in this year’s projects, and will be looking for “deep technology integration in fully formed apps, services and games with the potential to be viable in the commercial marketplace.”

Finally, the company is foregoing the categories that were used in past competitions so that projects that don’t neatly fit into a category can still compete.

You can check out the official rules and regulations, and register for the Imagine Cup today!

The cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows Store apps AdDuplex has published today its latest Windows Device Statistic Report, and the new data collected on October 19th shows that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update continues to gain OS share across devices. While not a lot has changed on the mobile side since last month’s report, AdDuplex did observe that the global rollout of Windows 10 version 1607 on desktop PCs reached a new milestone this month. Let’s dive into the details below.

First of all, the company noted that the top Windows phone chart remained the same this month: the Lumia 535 is still the most popular handset worldwide with a 13.3% market share (up 0.7 points of percentage month-over-month), followed by the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 640. Looking at the Windows 10 Mobile phones exclusively, the only notable change is that the Lumia 540 (a more powerful variant of the Lumia 535 which was not released globally) in now the tenth most popular handset, replacing the Lumia 830. Additionally, the premium-priced HP Elite x3 entered the chart at #36, which doesn’t mean much as the handset has only reached select markets over the last few weeks.

The Windows Phone OS versions charts are more interesting: AdDuplex’s latest data confirms that Windows 10 Mobile is no longer growing and its current 13.7% OS share is actually slightly lower than last month’s numbers (14%). As AdDuplex only collects data from around 5,000 Windows Phone apps running AdDuplex SDK v.2 and higher, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Windows Phone 8/8.1 (both OSes claims a combined OS share of 84.2% OS) is making a come back. Still, it’s still quite concerning to see that the massive discounts on Microsoft’s latest Lumia phones did not move the needle.

While Windows 10 Mobile still has a low market share, AdDuplex’s analysis of Windows 10 Mobile versions show that the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update is now running on more than 90% of Windows 10 Mobile phones (including Windows Insiders running Redstone 2 builds). 84.9% of users are now running the version 1607, which is 2.5 points of percentage higher than last month’s numbers.

On the desktop side, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is now running on the majority of Windows 10 PCs: with a 76.6% OS share, the user base of Windows 10 version 1607 more than doubled over the last month. According to AdDuplex, this progress should encourage more developers to take advantage of the new features included in the latest major release.

Lastly, the company updated its Windows 10 PC Manufacturers chart and noted that Lenovo has now tied with Dell for the second place, with both companies holding a 11.6% market share. HP is still far ahead of both (21.9%) while Microsoft remains a niche player with a 2.8% market share (down 0.2 points of percentage).

Overall, we’re pretty excited to see that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is now running on the majority of Windows 10 PCs and we hope to see more developers starting to embrace the UWP platform. However, the fact that Windows 10 Mobile may have reached its peak on Windows phones may cast some doubt on Microsoft’s vision of a universal Windows platform with apps that scale across different devices on form factors. While Microsoft is still fully supporting Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 PCs definitely remain the most important element of the Windows 10 ecosystem and we don’t expect to see a lot of changes in the next few months.