To celebrate the May 6 premiere of the latest Doctor Strange movie, Microsoft and Marvel are teaming up to give away a custom Xbox Series S. The limited edition console has a custom livery featuring Gargantos, the space octopus from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The console will also include four Xbox controllers that have been given the same customized treatment, each taking inspiration from a different key character from Marvel Studio’s latest movie: Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Wong (Benedict Wong), the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez).

Enter the Multiverse with Xbox and Marvel Studios in the "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" custom console and controller sweepstakes. Learn more: https://t.co/G3vtfbtdIc

— Xbox Wire (@XboxWire) April 29, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a follow-up to the 2016 film Doctor Strange. Directed by Sam Raimi, creator of the Spider Man trilogy, and written by American screenwriter Michael Waldron (of Rick and Morty fame), the film is the 28th set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This is far from the first time Xbox has teamed up with major movie and television franchises to produce unique Xbox creations. Spongebob Squarepants and Sonic the Hedgehog have also been honored with custom Xbox consoles recently. If you are interested in a chance to win this Custom Doctor Strange Series S Custom Console and Controllers Sweepstakes, you can learn more here. You can also check out the official rules page.

Two new Win32 apps have landed in the Microsoft Store. Spotted by @kid_jenius on Twitter, PuTTY and Audacity are now available as downloads on Microsoft’s storefront on Windows 11.

For those unfamiliar, PuTTY is a popular communications tool. It is often used for running interactive command-line sessions on other computers using the SSH protocol. The app also lets you communicate over a serial port, or speak various legacy Internet protocols. As for Audacity, it doesn’t need an explanation, as it is a multi-track editor and recording tool, used in podcasting and other audio production.

Before these official apps landed in the store, there were plenty of “fakes” or third-party apps that use the same logo as the real apps. Audacity has likely added a checkmark to the logo on their Microsoft Store app for this reason. Now that Win32 versions of PuTTY and Audacity are in the store, they join other heavy hitters, like OBS Studio, Firefox, Opera, and VLC media player.

Three more games will be playable for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold subscribers free of charge this weekend with Xbox Free Play Days.

Perhaps the most notable entry for this week’s Free Play Days lineup is Session: Skate Sim (Game Preview). With tweaked visuals and an overhauled physics system, this is the most realistic iteration of the game yet. It features a unique control scheme in which the dual thumbsticks represent the in-game characters feet, and is inspired by 1990’s golden age street skating culture.

Another game that is largely centered around its in-game physics is Moving Out. The game also has a rather unique premise: players take the helm of a startup moving company named “Smooth Moves.” You’ll take on a variety of increasingly challenging moving jobs throughout the town of Packmore in this quirky game that features up to four player co-op multiplayer.

Lastly for this week’s Free Play Days games we have Embr, in which players take on the role of a firefighter for hire. Players can play alone or with up to three friends in multiplayer co-op, throughout 25 hazard-filled levels in three districts. As you fight fires and save lives (and perhaps “collect” a few loose valuables in the process) you will rack up ratings based on your performance, hopefully leading to jobs from wealthier clientele. And there is an array of tools, vehicles and outfits to obtain that will help you get the job done in all-new ways.

Xbox Free Play Days is another perk of having a subscription to Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold. A new lineup of free-to-play games is introduced each week. It is a great way to try something new and maybe even find your new favorite. You can learn more about Xbox Free Play Days here.

Microsoft Edge version 101 is now rolling out to the stable channel. The release is still a fairly minor one, but it adds two new features relating to Progressive Web Apps, as well as browser profiles. Here’s a look at what you need to know.

First up, there are some improvements to the Progressive Web Apps launch experience. You’ll now be able to launch these from the favorites bar via an Apps icon. In addition, there are changes to the ability to set the default profile. Microsoft says that a new EdgeDefaultProfileEnabled policy will let you set a default profile to use when opening the browser instead of the last profile that was used. Other new features are below.

• Client Certificate Switcher: This feature will offer a way for users to clear the remembered certificate and resurface the certificate picker when visiting a site that requires HTTP certificate authentication. This can be done without manually quitting Microsoft Edge.
• Manage the “Allow extensions from other stores” setting. Now you can use the ControlDefaultStateOfAllowExtensionFromOtherStoresSettingEnabled policy to set the default state of the “Allow extensions from other stores” setting.
• Improvements to the Enterprise Site List Manager. Now you can configure shared cookies between Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer on your enterprise site list. You can access the Enterprise Site List Manager at edge://compat/SiteListManager.

As usual, the release brings some depreciated and new policies. We invite you to check out Microsoft’s changelog for more on these. We also remind you that updating Edge to version 101 will patch some security issues. There are two CVEs related to Edge that Microsoft has listed. Check it out here.

Microsoft Edge should auto-update to the latest version, but if it does not, you can trigger it manually. Just head to the browser’s menu, choose Help and Feedback then About Microsoft Edge and wait for the update to download and then restart.

It has been known for some time that Microsoft was working on more ways to allow IT admins to monitor Teams chats and channels, and as spotted by Neowin, we now know the specific work that’s being done under the hood to do so. Indeed, the Microsoft 365 Roadmap recently added several new classifiers relating to Microsoft Purview, the solution that scans and detects security and other risks in a company’s Microsoft 365 services against pre-set compliance standards.

To be specific, there’s a total of eight new classifiers for Purview that Microsoft is working on. The list covers sexual harassment, corporate sabotage, gifts and entertainment, money laundering, stock manipulation, workplace collusion, leavers, and authorized disclosures. A lot of those classifiers are self-explanatory, but we’ve included a sample explanation below.

The sexual harassment classifier detects explicit instances of sexual harassment as may be outlined in your organization’s policies and code of conduct, such as sexual advances, sexual comments and sexual favors. Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance helps organizations detect explicit code of conduct and regulatory compliance violations, such as harassing or threatening language, sharing of adult content, and inappropriate sharing of sensitive information.

When configured if Purview’s A.I. scans or spots anything that relates to any of these themes, the messages or content are sent for moderation. Do note, that the feature is Built with privacy by design. This means that usernames are pseudonymized by default, role-based access controls are built-in, investigators are explicitly opted in by an admin, and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

These classifiers are set to hit preview in June. General Availability should then come in September of 2022.

Microsoft was among the first “cyber” actors attempting to alert Ukraine to the digital threats Russia was imploring shortly before the country enacted its land invasion of the sovereign nation.

With firsthand experience and knowledge about cyberattacks preceding a physical confrontation, Microsoft released the conclusion of a report “detailing the relentless and destructive Russian cyberattacks we’ve observed in a hybrid war against Ukraine.”

Yesterday, the company posted to its Microsoft on the Issues blog, a report it commissioned that lays out the details of Russia’s seemingly sanctioned nation-state (the GRU) cyber-attacks launched in concert with kinetic military actions as well as how Microsoft sought to help protect Ukranian people and organizations during the onslaught.

Below are some details on a handful of what Microsoft believes to be upwards of 237 attacks, that also happen to align with widely reported “kinetic military operations,” listed in its detailed report.

As today’s report details, Russia’s use of cyberattacks appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed with its kinetic military operations targeting services and institutions crucial for civilians. For example, a Russian actor launched cyberattacks against a major broadcasting company on March 1st, the same day the Russian military announced its intention to destroy Ukrainian “disinformation” targets and directed a missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv. On March 13th, during the third week of the invasion, a separate Russian actor stole data from a nuclear safety organization weeks after Russian military units began capturing nuclear power plants sparking concerns about radiation exposure and catastrophic accidents. While Russian forces besieged the city of Mariupol, Ukrainians began receiving an email from a Russian actor masquerading as a Mariupol resident, falsely accusing Ukraine’s government of “abandoning” Ukrainian citizens.

Not only does Microsoft cover more specific instances of coordinated cyberattacks, but it charts the percentage of destructive attacks concerning government, military, economic and civilian organizations or critical infrastructures as well as detailed timeline of the types of techniques used.

When Russian troops first started to move toward the border with Ukraine, we saw efforts to gain initial access to targets that could provide intelligence on Ukraine’s military and foreign partnerships. By mid-2021, Russian actors were targeting supply chain vendors in Ukraine and abroad to secure further access not only to systems in Ukraine but also NATO member states. In early 2022, when diplomatic efforts failed to de-escalate mounting tensions around Russia’s military build-up along Ukraine’s borders, Russian actors launched destructive wiper malware attacks against Ukrainian organizations with increasing intensity. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Russian cyberattacks have been deployed to support the military’s strategic and tactical objectives. It’s likely the attacks we’ve observed are only a fraction of activity targeting Ukraine.

Microsoft’s Special Report: Ukraine an Overview of Russia’s Cyberattack Activity in Ukraine is an engaging piece of immediate historical reference as per the company’s president Brad Smith puts it, marks the first publicly highlighted hybrid war.

Microsoft’s report also examines the most overt and subtle forms of cyber warfare where Smith implores the world’s nations to be on the lookout for “disinformation” campaigns which are particularly threatening to democracy around the globe.

Not all is lost by the end of the 21-page report Microsoft offers a set of recommendations that include:

• Minimizing credential theft and account abuse
• Secure internet-facing systems and remote access solutions
• Leverage anit-malware, endpoint detection, and Identity protection solutions.
• Enable investigations and recovery
• Defend against destructive attacks
• Review and implement “best practices” for defense in depth.

Microsoft vows to continue to work with Ukraine to spot, catalogue and address future Russian backed cyber aggression but also encourages liberal arts and computer majors to switch class focus for a bit to better identify the political, socio-economic, historical and engineering aspects to future hybrid war strategies.

Microsoft has been known for some design inconsistencies, where not all of its products or apps look the same on Windows. Yet Windows 11 was a huge step forward in cleaning things up, but one more thing is in the works, too. Shared by FireCube on Twitter (via Windows Central), Microsoft is testing rounded corners, and more subtle Windows 11 design effects in Edge Canary.

These new design options come in Edge Canary version 102.0.1241.0 and is exclusive to Windows 11, but take a bit of digging to get to. You’ll first have to go to edge://flags and search for the Show experimental appearance settings option and turn it Enabled, then quit and reopen the browser.

Once that’s enabled, you can go back to Edge’s appearance settings menu, and look for the new Show Windows 11 visual effects in the title bar switch. Turn it on. You’ll also see a Use rounded corners for browser tabs (Preview) option, too. And it can be toggled to the on position as well. Once done, restart the browser, and Edge should look like the screenshot below.

Overall, this is a really nice look, very reminiscent of the now-defunct legacy version of Microsoft Edge. It definitely helps the web browser look more consistent with the operating system that it is running on, mainly thanks to the semi-transparent mica effects that already make Windows 11 look so beautiful. Even the rounded tabs are nice, as it has more of a “floating” look, similar to what Mozilla has accomplished in the latest version of Firefox.

We hope that Microsoft rolls this design change out to the regular stable version of Microsoft Edge soon. However, features in Edge Canary are known to come and go, so just because we’re seeing this today, it doesn’t mean that it’s final. Do check it out, though, and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Gameloft today announced an upcoming video game called Disney Dreamlight Valley that’s currently expected to release on Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X (and S,) and Sony and Nintendo’s rival consoles in 2023.

Disney Dreamlight Valley seems to be a bit like The Sims and Animal Crossing and allows the player to customize their own player avatar and complete tasks within a village populated by Disney and Pixar properties.

A short teaser video was released that shows a variety of customization options and activities that players can explore. Rather amusingly, Disney Dreamlight Valley seems aimed at adult fans of Disney properties rather than young players. As in, it has a strong free-to-play mobile game for soccer mums to play vibe going for it. This isn’t necessarily a strange decision though as there are definitely a lot of adult Disney fans out there, this writer included.

While Disney Dreamlight Valley isn’t due for release until 2023, subscribers of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service will be given free early access to a kind of open beta which is expected to debut sometime this year. Interested gamers on other platforms will have to purchase a Founders Pack to partake in this early testing period.

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