Just a short while left to grab you free upgrade, will be priced $119
here’s 10 reasons why to upgrade:
May 05
Just a short while left to grab you free upgrade, will be priced $119
here’s 10 reasons why to upgrade:
Apr 23
As part of the culture here at Microsoft, we like to dedicate certain days and have everyone in the team spend the time focused on finding new unreported issues. We call this a “Bug Bash.” We are kicking off a Bug Bash inside the Windows and Devices Group next week and we’d like to invite you to join us! A large amount of the feedback we have already is from Windows Insiders so we thought it was appropriate to include you in our upcoming Bug Bash as well. Next week we will have 4 days of multiple Quests inside the Feedback Hub that will highlight different areas of the product each day. We will be looking for feedback on each quests or whatever part of Windows and our apps you are most passionate about. We will have more details to share with you next week, so keep your eye on the Feedback Hub or follow Gabel Aul on Twitter for news.
Apr 23
As part of the culture here at Microsoft, we like to dedicate certain days and have everyone in the team spend the time focused on finding new unreported issues. We call this a “Bug Bash.” We are kicking off a Bug Bash inside the Windows and Devices Group next week and we’d like to invite you to join us! A large amount of the feedback we have already is from Windows Insiders so we thought it was appropriate to include you in our upcoming Bug Bash as well. Next week we will have 4 days of multiple Quests inside the Feedback Hub that will highlight different areas of the product each day. We will be looking for feedback on each quests or whatever part of Windows and our apps you are most passionate about. We will have more details to share with you next week, so keep your eye on the Feedback Hub or follow Gabel Aul on Twitter for news.
Apr 23
Lots of new cool stuff in this release!
We announced Windows Ink at Build 2016 a few weeks ago as an all-new experience coming with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update later this summer. Starting with today’s build – you can try out the new Windows Ink experience for yourself. Windows Ink puts the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world. Windows Ink is also integrated into apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge, and Office.
If you have a device with an active pen like the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book – Windows Ink Workspace is enabled by default and accessible via the pen button in the notification area of your taskbar. You won’t see this button if your device does not have an active pen paired with it. However, for those of you who don’t have a device with an active pen but want to try out Windows Ink Workspace, you can right-click on the taskbar and choose “Show Windows Ink Workspace button”.
Give Windows Ink a try and let us know what you think about this exciting new experience coming for free this summer to all Windows 10 customers. For more information on Windows Ink, you can read this blog post from Li-Chen Miller. And if you’re a developer you can read this blog post on how to build apps powered by Windows Ink.
We have made improvements to the Start experience in Windows 10 which we think improves efficiency and discoverability of finding all of your apps as well as being more consistent across PC, Tablet, and Mobile.
We have merged the most used apps list and the All apps list into a single view and elevated it to the top level of the UI to reduce clicking and scrolling. You can now access all your apps with one click on the Start menu. We have also moved important functionality such as Power, Settings, and File Explorer so that they are always visible in the left rail in the Start menu, and updated the Recently added section so that it will now show 3 entries instead of just 1, and can be expanded to see the entire list of new apps.
Finally, with this new design, any additional folders you have chosen to appear on Start (via Settings > Personalization > Start such as Documents or Pictures) will now be immediately available on Start and you will no longer need to open the hamburger button to access them.
In tablet mode, we added features that would take advantage of the space on screen and make tablet mode feel more immersive.
Full-screen All Apps list in Start: For Start on tablets, we have brought back the full-screen All Apps list. This was a top request from Windows Insiders. The grid-like implementation of the full-screen All Apps list aims to provide efficiency while taking advantage of the additional real estate on the Start screen on a tablet. Specifically, we looked at striking a balance between density and “scan-ability” (how easy it is to scan the list to find the app you want). We have also made it easier to toggle between your pinned tiles and All Apps list on the Start screen by providing these options in the left rail which is consistent with the UI used throughout Windows.
Auto-hide taskbar in tablet mode: You can now choose to only auto-hide the taskbar in tablet mode. By hiding the taskbar, apps can take full advantage of the screen for an immersive and distraction-free experience. The setting can be found in Settings, under System > Tablet Mode. When the taskbar is hidden, swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen will make it appear. Doing so again will make it disappear.
Cortana on your Lock screen: You can now have Cortana on your Lock screen where you can ask her questions like “Remind me to take out the trash when I get home” or “When is the next Mariners game?” and get an immersive Cortana experience without having to unlock your device. You can also try asking Cortana “How is the traffic on my way home?” or “What is my schedule for tomorrow like?” For sensitive tasks or those that launch applications, Cortana will prompt you to unlock your device.
To enable Cortana on your Lock screen – go to Cortana’s settings and under “Lock screen options” turn on “Let me use Cortana even when my device is locked” and also make sure you have “Hey Cortana” enabled as well.
More ways to create Cortana Reminders: We are making it easier and quicker to set a reminder in Cortana with 2 new exciting ways to create reminders. You can now create a Photo Reminder by taking a picture of something you want to be reminded about, like that beer you just tried and want to pick up next time you’re at the store. You can also now set reminders on content from UWP apps that utilize the share contract in Windows, like Microsoft Edge and the News app, so you don’t forget to read that article your friend sent you. You can share an article from the News app to Cortana and have her remind you to read it at a later time. This even works with photos from your collection in the Photos app! Give it a try.
Cortana Cross-Device Features: With the goal of keeping you in perfect sync across all the devices where you use Cortana, we introduced new cross-device features for Cortana with the last PC build, but these features were not working correctly with Build 14295 on Mobile. With today’s new Mobile build, these features should now be working correctly. Cortana will now inform you of low battery power on your mobile devices such as your Windows phone. Additionally, you can ask Cortana to find and ring your phone, and you will be able to share maps across all your devices.
Making Cortana easier to use: Starting with this build, you will be able to get started using Cortana right away without any set up or sign-in. The goal here is to make it really easy for people who are new to Cortana to try Cortana out. Without setting up or signing in to Cortana, you can ask Cortana simple questions about the world like “How tall is the Eiffel Tower?”, conduct a web search, have her tell you a joke or search documents on your device. As you find Cortana more useful and want her to do more for you, she’ll ask you to sign-in and ask for only the details needed to help you out. The best experience for Cortana will still be a signed in experience with complete personalization, but we’re excited to give even more people the opportunity to get to know Cortana. This update will be available to everyone when we release the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition this summer.
Deeper file search, including OneDrive results: You can now quickly search your files whether they are on your PC or your personal OneDrive in the cloud. You can search for documents, photos, music as well as videos stored on OneDrive. Just search for something you need to find and click one of the search filters (e.g. documents, photos, music, or videos) and it will show you content from your OneDrive.
Evolving the entry point for Action Center: The Action Center icon has moved to the far corner of the taskbar so it is more distinct from other icons – making it easier to interact with it. There is a badge that now displays the number of notifications you have missed, and we are making it easier for you to know what app your notifications are from by adding a subtle animation to the icon (showing the sender app’s logo) whenever you receive notifications that do not show a toast.
Visual changes to Action Center: Individual app notifications in Action Center no longer show the app icon repeated for each notification and will only be seen in the header that groups together all the notifications specific for that app. This change allows for more space in Action Center to show more content.
Cortana notifications in Action Center: We have also added new insights from Cortana to ensure you are not missing anything important, such as a meeting conflict or anything she needs to remind you about.
Customize your Quick Actions in Action Center: You can add, remove and re-arrange the Quick Actions that show up in Action Center. To customize your Quick Actions, just go to the Settings > System > Notifications & actions. In this settings page, you will see a replica of your Quick Actions as it appears in Action Center, and with a simple press and hold you can move the Quick Actions to the place where you want them to be. Then to add or remove a Quick Action, there is a link below the grid that will allow you to turn on or off the available Quick Actions. The last preview build for Mobile introduced this for your Windows 10 phones, and now we’re bringing it to PC too.
Wi-Fi Quick Action changes: The Wi-Fi Quick Action directly takes you to the “View Available Network” flyout instead of turning ON/OFF your Wi-Fi. We received a lot of feedback on this from Windows Insiders and customers who were confused by the Wi-Fi Quick Action.
Taskbar clock now integrates your calendar: Your calendar events are now just one click away – you can easily check your daily schedule directly in the taskbar clock flyout, after connecting your accounts in the Calendar app. If you click on an event in the flyout, it will redirect you to that event’s details in the Calendar app. You can also add a new event by clicking the “+” button.
Taskbar clock on all monitors: We heard a lot of requests for this from our gaming community. We’re happy to announce that for the first time since the taskbar was created, if you have multiple monitors and your taskbar set to show on all displays, the clock will now be visible on each Taskbar.
Taskbar Badging for UWP apps: You will now see badges appearing on UWP apps on the taskbar in addition to their Live Tiles and in Action Center. These badges are lightweight notifications that are contextual and specific to individual apps. For example, the Mail apps badge shows you the number of unseen emails (not unread). The Alarms & Clock app’s badge will show you that you have an active alarm. The Weather app’s badge lets you know when there is a weather alert in the area.
Taskbar settings now in Settings app: We have now moved the taskbar settings into the Settings app. Just go to Settings > System > Taskbar or right-click on the taskbar to go directly to this page in the Settings app. As an added bonus, these settings are now discoverable by searching with Cortana.
Manage multiple playback devices from the Taskbar: The volume flyout has been updated to allow you to switch between multiple audio output devices. Just click the arrow next to current audio output in use to expand and see other output devices available.
Icons for individual settings pages: All pages in the Settings app now have individual icons associated with them. These individual icons will also be shown when you pin a settings page to Start. And we have also added a dropdown flyout with page suggestions that will appear as you type into the Settings search box. These changes are designed to make it easier to find the settings you are looking for.
Updated Pen settings page:The Pen settings page under Settings > Devices > Pen has been updated to include the ability to adjust your pen shortcuts (e.g. click one to open OneNote), a new option to ignore touch input when using the pen, and Windows Ink Workspace settings. The touch keyboard and handwriting panel settings have been split up and you can choose to ignore touch input when using the pen.
Improved app management: We have added the ability to reset an app if it gets into a bad state under Settings > Apps and features. This is useful if an app gets into a bad state and you want to delete its data and start over. Just choose “Advanced options” for a specific app under Settings > Apps and features and you will see the reset button. Note that not all apps currently support reset however. You will also be able manage app add-ons and downloadable content here too if the app supports this capability as discussed at Build 2016. While there are currently no apps that support add-ons or downloadable content in the Store, please stay tuned for availability of apps that do once they are released.
Windows Insider Program settings page: We have moved the Windows Insider Program settings to its own settings page. This is where you can go to join the Windows Insider Program (or stop receiving Insider Preview builds) and adjust which ring you are in. On Mobile – for Build 14327 and higher, the Windows Insider app is no longer required. To get to this new page, go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program.
Virtual desktop users can now switch quickly between desktops using their touchpads. To do this, swipe four fingers left or right on your touchpad. Try switching desktops with a quick-flick. And if you want to refer to two adjacent desktops you can keep your fingers down and drag back and forth. You will need a precision touchpad that supports four or more fingers, such as the precision touchpads found on Surface Book or Surface Pro 4 Type Cover. While you’re at it try these other touchpad gestures supported in Windows 10.
Email addresses are hidden on the Lock screen: Your privacy is important to us and we received feedback that people did not want their email addresses displayed on the Lock screen. Email addresses are now hidden by default. If you would like your email address to show in the Lock screen, you can change this setting by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Privacy.
Media controls show on top of the Lock screen: Media controls will now appear embedded at the bottom right corner of the Lock screen, along with a picture of the album art from the song currently playing.
When you are prompted to enter your credentials or elevate a program, you will notice the dialog now has a fresh and modern UI to align with the design language in use across Windows 10. And now when prompted to enter credentials, you can choose to sign-in with Windows Hello, a PIN, certificates or a simple password.
With the updated version of the Skype UWP Preview app, you can now create and send group messages, as well as make group audio and video calls. For more information on this update to the Skype UWP Preview app, see this blog post here.
Windows Insiders love finding new icons. This one is pretty noticeable so we wanted to call it out. We’ve updated the File Explorer icon to align with the monochrome design language used for the icons across Windows 10. However, you will notice a little bit of color still present in the icon. The design team was a bit hesitant to completely let go of the yellow because it has become such a familiar part of the File Explorer branding.
They explored a variety of different ways to keep the yellow and still match the cleanliness of the black and white Windows app icons. The new icon you see in this build is where the design team landed that is closer to monochrome, but still has the familiar shape that users recognize, and has a nod to the yellow that you see all throughout File Explorer. Let us know what you think.
We hear feedback from Windows Insiders about how important the space on the taskbar is for them, and we made a major change in Windows 10 early last year based on their feedback when we added an option to hide the search box. We’re continuing to look at things we can do to make this the best use of space possible, including what gets pinned by default. In this build we are unpinning File Explorer by default to see whether Insiders prefer it pinned, or would rather have the space for their own use and launch File Explorer when they need it from Start. You can also re-pin it to your taskbar by opening Start, right-clicking on File Explorer in the left rail, choosing “More” and then “Pin to taskbar”. Tell us what you think about this via the Feedback Hub. This study is similar to the one we did a year ago where Insiders helped determine what windows were represented on the taskbar in virtual desktops.
Prediction capability enhancements on Japanese IME: You can expand prediction candidate window by hitting Tab key at the bottom of the candidate window to find various formats of date expressions. Conversion result is also shown in prediction candidate window when your text is relatively long.
Improved typing history management in Japanese IME: You can now choose to store your typing history to a temporary repository and have it cleared automatically to avoid an inadvertent exposure to other people through the IME candidate window, without losing the important typing history you had accumulated over time. Just enable the mode from the context menu available on IME mode indicator. When you have finished typing, disable the mode from the same menu to have the temporary repository cleared. This functionality is automatically enabled during InPrivate browsing with Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.
Improved Cloud suggestions in Japanese IME: The IME UI has been improved to indicate the availability of Cloud suggestions! You will be notified in the candidate window when Cloud suggestions are available to use and can enjoy the rich vocabularies empowered by Bing. The flyout navigates users to the Settings, allowing them to switch to use Cloud suggestions more seamlessly as you type text.
Source: Windows Blog
Apr 20
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Apr 20
You can now try out the preview of the “Messaging everywhere” feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s.
To enable this:
Try it out and less us know what you think via the Feedback Hub.
NOTE: You may have noticed that Skype integration in the Messaging app in this build of Windows 10 Mobile has been removed. This is so Skype can streamline your experience, replacing the integration with the Skype UWP Preview app for mobile in an upcoming build. In the meantime, you can use the existing Skype for Windows Phone app available in the Windows Store.
With this build, we are enabling Cortana for the Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada) languages for Mobile (available previously in PC builds). If you’re running the Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview in these languages – give Cortana a try and let us know what you think. For each new market and language, the Cortana Team works to develop a custom experience that is relevant in each individual market and language. These are early versions that we will continue improve based on your feedback and we look forward to hearing more from you.
Voice input is also now available for these languages. Set focus to a text field and tap the microphone above the keyboard to give it a try.
Enjoy updating!
Apr 11
When: 27/4/2016
Schedule:
18:00 Welcome & Food
18:30 Part 1: How to manage your Local Administrator Passwords centrally.
Pause
19:30 Part 2: How to protect your environment/customer from Crypto-lockers.
20:30 Networking & drinks
Where:
Prins Boudewijnlaan 49
2650 Edegem – Belgium
Apr 08
Run native Bash on Ubuntu on Windows: In this build, you can natively run Bash in Windows as announced last week at Build 2016. To do this, you first need to turn on Developer Mode via Settings > Update & security > For developers. Then search for “Windows Features” and choose “Turn Windows features on or off” and enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta). To get Bash installed, open Command Prompt and type “bash”. For more details, see this blog post.
Cortana Cross-Device Features: Starting today, we will be releasing new features to Insiders on an ongoing basis that keeps you in perfect sync across all the devices where you use Cortana to stay connected and never miss a beat throughout your day. With today’s build, we are rolling out the below features. If you are an Insider who doesn’t have a Windows phone, these features will also work with Android devices too but you will need Cortana Version 1.5 or higher (Download here for U.S. and download here for China) for them to work.
UPDATE: We are aware of issues in which some of these new features are not working correctly with Build 14295 on mobile. The next mobile build will allow these features to work more completely.
Making Cortana easier to setup on your device: If you are in Cortana supported markets and struggled to get Cortana enabled, this will automatically download the necessary speech language, if needed, and enable Cortana for you.
New and Updated Extensions for Microsoft Edge: A few weeks ago, we announced the availability of extension support for Microsoft Edge with more on the way. Today, we are excited to share with you some new extensions that you can try out – Pin It Button and OneNote Clipper. In addition, we have updated versions of Reddit Enhancement Suite, Mouse Gestures, and Microsoft Translator. To install these new extensions, just click on “More” (…) at the top right in Microsoft Edge and click “Extensions” to open the Extensions pane and click “Get extensions”.
Please note: There is change in this build that will break existing extensions installed on your PC in Microsoft Edge if they were previously installed using an older build. You can download the new installation files and re-install the existing extensions using the new installers.
Try out the Skype UWP Preview app: You can try out the Skype UWP Preview app announced a couple of weeks ago on the Skype blog. The Skype UWP Preview app includes a lot of the basic Skype functionality – with more features and functionality to come in the next couple of releases. We are first releasing this for PCs only, but we will be making the Skype UWP app available for Mobile in a future build.
Action Center Improvements: We have added the ability to select which app notifications are more important to you in Action Center. On your device, you can manage the notification settings for individual apps by going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions. Just click or tap on a specific app to adjust its notification settings. You can prioritize its notifications in Action Center to be one of 3 levels: Normal, High, or Priority. Additionally, you can also adjust how many notifications are visible per app. The default is now 3 per app. If an app has more than 3 notifications, just click or tap to expand and see all notifications for that app. This was a top request from Insiders.
Updated Emoji: We wanted to share some cool work from our design team that is showing up in this build. We are updating the entire set of font-based emoji in Windows 10 that aligns with the Microsoft Design Language with a distinct visual style as well as the Unicode standard.
These new emoji are designed to be detailed, expressive, and playful. Their larger size takes full advantage of every pixel and the two-pixel outline allows for emoji to appear on any color background without loss of fidelity.
Our new emoji also supports skin tone modification across a wide variety of people glyphs.
Personalization Improvements: We’ve added the ability to universally toggle between dark and light modes via Settings > Personalization > Colors.
When you switch to dark mode, apps such as Settings, Store, Alarms & Clock, Calculator and other UWP apps that listen and respond to theme changes in the OS will change into dark mode. Some UWP apps that control their own theme settings (separate from Windows) won’t change by toggling this setting.
We’ve also added a new option under Settings > Personalization > Colors to show color only on app title bars in addition to the option to show color on Start, the taskbar, and Action Center.
New PC access experience: Using the new Connect app, you can bring the Continuum experience from your phone (a Continuum-enabled Windows 10 phone is required) to the PC without needing a dock or Miracast adapter. Additionally, it also allows other Miracast-enabled PCs to project to other PCs without needing a dock or Miracast adapter as well. The Connect app will mention the ability to use a USB cable to connect to your PC however this is a bug and the app only supports wireless connections on PCs. This is an early preview of this feature – we have more work coming to make the experience even better.
Virtual Desktop Improvements: You can now pin a window so it’s available on every desktop. To do this, launch Task View then right-click on the window you want to pin and choose “Show this window on all desktops”. Try pinning Skype or Groove Music so they’re always at your fingertips. And if you have a multi-mon setup, you might enjoy the ability to have your email app on the second monitor no matter which desktop you switch to.
New Update Progress Experience: When you PC installs today’s new build update – you will see a new progress experience for installing the update. This is part of an effort to align the experience of installing updates from Windows Update.
Updated Battery Settings and Battery Saving Experience: We have renamed “Battery Saver” settings page to be “Battery” since we believe a single entry point for all battery related settings including Battery Saver simplifies the user experience.
We also updated the Detailed Battery Use page so you can now manage the per-app background settings inline without going to a second page and added a new background settings option called “Managed by Windows”.
With this option, not only will the app stop running in the background when Battery Saver is enabled, but it will temporarily turn off apps with high battery drain that you haven’t used in a while or pinned to your Start screen till you next launch the application (shown as “Turned off by system” on the Detailed Battery Use page). We also added a prompt asking the user if they’d like to turn on Battery Saver when battery is at 20% – something we had with Windows Phone 8.1 that Insiders wanted to see us re-implement as we merged Battery Sense into the Settings app for both PC and mobile.
Updated Windows Update Settings: You can now set the time in which you are most active on your device by adjusting active hours under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Windows Update will avoid automatically installing updates during your active hours on your device.
Commenting in the Feedback Hub: As we announced at Build last week, we have added the ability to comment on feedback inside the Feedback Hub. You have seen responses from our engineering team in the app already, in what we call “sticky comments”. Those comments are now the top items in a comments thread where you can discuss feedback with each other and us. So in addition to up-voting on feedback, you can now comment on feedback too. We hope you will use the discussion feature to share workarounds, discuss suggestions others have made, and share any new info you have about problems you’re seeing. As always, please let us know what you think by going to Apps & Games > Feedback Hub and joining the discussion!
Messaging Everywhere Preview Coming Soon: We will soon be enabling a preview of the “Messaging everywhere” feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s. You will see options for this feature in the Messaging app on PC however an update is required for the Messaging app for Mobile for this experience to work. More to come on this when the experience is live.
Source: Windows Blog
Apr 06
This eBook will discuss Windows Server 2016 Virtualization, also known as Hyper-V 2016. Many Hyper-V components have evolved with each Microsoft release, and knowing this information is key to understanding the increased functionality and usability.
Many of the new features require the basic usage of PowerShell. You’ll find them documented throughout this eBook as examples of features that allow IT Professionals to leverage Hyper-V PowerShell scripts in their own environments.
The goal of this eBook is to provide the necessary tools to successfully test, and eventually manage, a Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V environment.
Get the E-Book Here