Eagle-eyed viewers could see the unusual taskbar with the widgets and system tray shown at the top of the desktop. The Windows 11 floating taskbar was shown running on Microsoft’s new Surface Studio 2+. That device already allows users to change the size of taskbar icons when moving the display. It is unclear if the floating taskbar will be restricted to specific hardware or function across all Windows 11 PCs....

This gives users a chance to talk about those specific services. Furthermore, they will be able to ask about preview builds, features, and of course, Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Microsoft reached out to users last Friday. The company asked for tweeted questions to Insider chief Dona Sarkar. She then answered those questions on the Windows Insider Program. However, Windows 10 users have not missed their chance. Devin Sinha sent out a tweet today asking for questions ahead of his AMA on Reddit: The event will kick off at 1:30 PM (Pacific Time) later today (Monday, 17 July)....

That bigger product has now arrived, but it doesn’t come directly from Microsoft. Lightform is a collaboration between the former IllumiRoom research team and Bot & Dolly, the company behind the Box art project. ‘Magic in Seconds’ However, unlike IllumiRoom, Lightform is more than a TV entertainment system. The tiny computer intelligently maps your living room and projects images onto the objects there. Co-founder Raj Sodhi says it’s part of a wider push to integrate technology into our existing lives....

Specifically, Microsoft is pointing admins and IT professionals to the Service Health view in the Azure Portal. Here, outage information is readily available to anybody who has “owner, contributor, or reader access.” Mark Russinovich, CTO of Azure, concedes problems occur but wants customers to feel more connected when outages happen. “Service incidents like outages are an unfortunate inevitability of the technology industry. Of course, we are constantly improving the reliability of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform… In spite of these efforts, we acknowledge the unfortunate reality that—given the scale of our operations and the pace of change—we will never be able to avoid outages entirely....

Game Bar is no pre-installed as an app on Windows 10. To see it, open the app from the Start Menu of shortcut via Ctrl + G. Among the abilities in the application are customization of audio channels and audio controls. If you are unfamiliar with Game Bar, it is a feature for PC gamers on the platform. It offers quick access to settings and abilities, such as game recording and screenshots....

Microsoft Inspire was scheduled to be held in July at the company’s headquarters in Washington. However, the COVID-19 crisis has meant Microsoft is taking all events online until 2021. Now that Inspire is virtual, the company says it is free and open to everyone. If you’re unfamiliar with Inspire, it allows Microsoft to connect with its partners. However, it seems this year the virtual doors will be open to anyone who wants to watch....

In the post, Microsoft says Catalina has upped Apple’s game in terms of management of apps and devices, allowing a new environment for app development on macOS. Looking specifically at Microsoft Intune, the company has it has been investing in generating more deployment options for IT admins on macOS. As an overview of the changes Microsoft has made to align with macOS Catalina, here’s the list: Apple volume-purchased (VPP) apps support for macOS....

This is limited to members of the Windows Insider Program running previews of Windows 10 19H1. Those builds are still only available on the Fast Ring branch. Users running on the Slow Ring and Release Preview are still running Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update) previews. Through the Bug Bash, Insiders need to complete quests and fill surveys tailored to 19H1 features. If a bug is discovered, users can submit the finding to Microsoft....

Because of this lapse in coverage, users have been vulnerable to bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) attacks. Microsoft – at least in theory – demands that all drivers are digitally signed to prove that they are safe to use and updated. If there is any security hole, hackers could exploit it to attack Windows. As such, Microsoft puts vulnerable drivers on a list. This is important because drivers access core areas of the Windows platform but are not directly controlled by Microsoft....

A new meeting form allows users to select between Required or Optional attendees for a meeting without needing to move to the Address Book. With a new Scheduling Assistant, Outlook on Windows now has a tab that leverages Microsoft intelligent services to automatically suggest contact names. The feature will surface names from contacts you frequently work with. Elsewhere, time zones are now smarter. When creating a single meeting or a multi-day meeting, attendees can now see the meeting in their local time....

As we reported earlier this year, Windows 10 20H2 could arrive as a minor update. Microsoft has yet to confirm this is the case but has hinted the next update won’t have many features. We do know the company has already experimented with a new update schedule last year. Microsoft announced last year a dramatic change to its update schedule. The company said it will reduce main feature updates to once a year....

Threat actors know workers in a remote home environment may not be as protected as in the workplace. Kaspersky Lab reports on a new phishing attack against Microsoft’s Office 365. Specifically, attackers are targeting Office users through Google Docs. It’s worth remembering back in 2019 Kaspersky said Microsoft Office takes 70% of all phishing attacks it observes. Clearly Microsoft’s platform is a target. This phishing attack starts with a letter with a message that is vague from an unknown sender....

So, far that app has been limited to preview users on the Office Insider Program. However, this week the Microsoft Office app is moving to wide availability to everyone. At the moment, this is an Android only unification that is available from the Google Play Store here. The app is similar to the Office Mobile Experience that arrived on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. As the name suggests, this is a singular application that gives access to all Microsoft’s Office apps under a single roof....

In a blog, Microsoft Research says it has been seeking a solution to reduce the workload and receive more system information. The company describes TensorWatch as “the Swiss Army Knife of debugging tools”. Customization is important in the solution, so Microsoft uses Jupyter Notebook instead of a prepackaged interface. Real-time machine learning training debugging is available in TensorWatch through composable UI Jupyter Notebooks and live dashboards in Jupyter Lab. Microsoft built TensorWatch as a Python library, users can also create their own UIs....

According to the publication, the IRS decided to take a stand against big companies back in 2012, and Microsoft was firmly in its headlights. In 2005, the tech giant set up a structure in Puerto Rico, and later transferred $39 billion of its U.S. profits to the country, where the government had agreed to a tax rate of effectively zero. Microsoft’s justification for the move was that it had sold its intellectual property to an 85-person factory it owned in the country....

Apple has spurred numerous trends over the years, and we thought another was sparked when the company removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from iPhones in 2016. That has not really happened yet, but there is clearly a shift towards removing the jack. Android OEMs have largely confounded Apple’s supposed trend settings. Flagships from Samsung, LG, Huawei and Sony have retained the 3.5mm headphone jack in 2017. HTC removed it from its flagship, but mostly Apple has not defined a trend just yet....

Power BI Multi Geo capacities are purposely configured in remote locations, allowing uses to not be limited to their home region. However, accessing the capacities was previously complicated. It involved moving through a multi-stage connection. Users had to make a connection through their home region and the remote region. The costs of doing this became too steep for many users. Microsoft says the new performance enhancement brings important changes. Users can now connect to the remote region more easily....

Previously, users were hit with a message saying, “You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account. Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but it can’t be refunded.” It’s the same statement that publications found two years ago when Microsoft pulled Bitcoin support before restoring it two days later. Provider Issues The reason behind the ban wasn’t entirely clear, with officials simply stating “several issues” with the digital currency....

One of several controversial tech laws being pushed in Australia is forcing online new curators to pay content creators for their work. For example, Facebook and Google must pay originators of sources for linking their work on their platforms. Known as the News Media Bargaining Code, the law forces tech giants to reach deals with news outlets regarding remuneration when they link them in feeds and on their services. Google argues the code puts search habits at risk....

Also arriving with .NET Core 2.2 Preview 3 is Entity Framework 2.2 Preview 3 and ASP.NET Core 2.2 Preview 3. The biggest change in .NET Core 2.2 is the addition of Tiered Compilation. In this iteration of .NET Core, Microsoft has made Tiered Compilation enabled by default. The feature was first launched with .NET Core 2.1 but was only enabled through application configuration or an environment variable. By making Tiered Compilation default, users receive a significant increase in request-per-second (RPS) throughput....