Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web-based applications that are enhanced with modern features. They are regular web page that can be used like a traditional or mobile application. Back in October, Microsoft confirmed it was working with Google to develop its own PWAs solution for Windows 10. Now the company has reiterated its ambition to launch Progressive Web Apps with the Redstone 4 release. However, Microsoft is eager to say PWAs are not replacing Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps: “Given the overlap in terms of capabilities, we often get asked about the recommended approach: PWA or UWP....

“Today we’re announcing that we intend to adopt the Chromium open source project in the development of Microsoft Edge on the desktop to create better web compatibility for our customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers,” said Microsoft CVP Joe Belfiore. “As part of this, we intend to become a significant contributor to the Chromium project, in a way that can make not just Microsoft Edge — but other browsers as well — better on both PCs and other devices....

“Today, we are thrilled to announce Windows 11 will start to become available on October 5, 2021. On this day, the free upgrade to Windows 11 will begin rolling out to eligible Windows 10 PCs and PCs that come pre-loaded with Windows 11 will start to become available for purchase. A new Windows experience, Windows 11 is designed to bring you closer to what you love.” The big news aside from the launch confirmation is that Windows 11 will ship with the majority of the features Microsoft unveiled at the introduction event....

“Our team is hard at work on E3, we look forward to sharing with all who love to play what’s ahead for us. Our artform has consistently been propelled by the cross-section of creativity and technical progress. 2020 is a milestone year in that journey for Team Xbox.” The news comes just a day after Sony confirmed it will be skipping E3 2020. Interestingly, the contrasting news from Microsoft and Sony tells a story about how each company has operated in recent years....

With that in mind, Redmond has today announced an open source bot that will give developers a helping hand. The bot accelerator for virtual assistance gives organizations tools to create their own in-house virtual assistants for business tasks. Microsoft says it has been able to develop the solution by working with partners on their own virtual assistants. It is also worth noting, as these are in-house assistants, they won’t be in the way of the company’s own Cortana plans....

Of course, Windows 10 is a big platform with numerous connections that are intertwined beneath the surface. For example, when you first clean install the platform, what apps, services, and websites are already connected to Windows by default? Well Microsoft has this week answered the question. The company has published a blog detailing which services link to Windows directly after a clean install. For the most part, the platform is generally free from bloatware....

Specifically, the Redmond-based company says it will increase the number of black employees in the United States by 2025. Microsoft says OFCCP has now sent a letter saying the program of inclusion constitutes racial discrimination. Considering Microsoft has gone public with the letter, it seems the company firmly disagrees with OCCP’s stance. In a blog post, Microsoft says the letter was received a week ago and questioned the validity of its diversity goals....

According to Xbox’s Larry Hryb, existing clips older than 90 days will soon be deleted, while all new clips without a view will be removed after 30 days. Some consumers are very unhappy that Microsoft is making this choice for them, or worried about precious memories disappearing. However, it’s worth noting that the outrage surrounding this change is somewhat overstated. Naturally, this limit only applies to clips on Xbox Live....

Naturally, the feature makes use of Microsoft Translator and generally provides good results. It doesn’t quite have the accuracy of Google and supports fewer languages, but it’s a good alternative if you use Edge. Visiting a webpage will display a button asking if you’d like to translate. Accepting the prompt will quickly turn it into your native language, with a prompt to switch back. So far, not much of an advantage over Chrome, but Microsoft’s implementation actually remembers your preferences....

According to Microsoft, a new Money in Excel tool is now available in the United States. Furthermore, the Stock History feature we discussed last week will be available later this week. Let’s start with Money in Excel, a feature that provides access to financial information that is displayed in a chart or spreadsheet. When a user sets up the tool, they can receive “bank, credit card, investment and loan accounts....

Forms Pro was leaked back in mid-February and officially confirmed a week later. The enhanced app will be integrated across Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Microsoft Power, and come with the following basic functionality: “Develop customized, on-brand surveys with your company’s look and feel using AI-assisted suggested questions. Incorporate sophisticated survey functionality like advanced branching, skip logic, individualized survey links, and multilingual capabilities. Reach your audience with timely, mobile-optimized surveys distributed through email, QR codes, webpages, and apps....

That has caused controversy, mostly because of Microsoft’s strict enacting of these requirements. In fact, the company has made it clear devices without these features that update to Windows 11 will be locked out from feature updates and security patches. Microsoft is now going on the defensive and highlighting why VBS and TPM 2.0 are valuable to the Windows 11 platform. It is worth remembering both features also work on Windows 10, but Microsoft does not demand them for the now legacy platform....

“Team Xbox is looking for you to drive support on Xbox Live for game mods. You will have a unique opportunity to shape and bring to market a new set of services, tools and experiences allowing game developers to easily integrate mods into their games, communities of passionate fans to create and share awesome and engaging content for the games they love, while keeping everyone on the network safe from abusive content,” says the listing....

In fact, Microsoft has made Bing Search a potent alternative to Google. In its latest push, the company is beefing up the accuracy of the web crawler. Microsoft says the BingBot has been improved with a new algorithm that has been in development for 18 months. Fabrice Canel, principal program manager for Bing Webmaster Tools said the result is a bot with improved understanding of “which sites to crawl, how often and how many pages to fetch from each site....

Microsoft says the new service is designed to aid organizations in their digital transformations. According to the company, businesses can “start even smaller”, allowing them to manage digitization more easily. Artificial intelligence is not something new in Dynamics 365. Microsoft already leverages AI for high value, complex scenarios. For example, the service uses a virtual assistant as a customer service tool within Microsoft Support. Currently, Dynamics 365 for Talent is not the “targeted solution” that some organizations may need....

It seems Windows 11 2022 Update is not playing nicely with this driver and is causing Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors. Microsoft has confirmed the issue and says anybody affected will be unable to install Windows 11 22H2. Moreover, users with Windows 10 are also included in the block. Microsoft points out this issue affects all hardware regardless of the operating system. In its support document, Microsoft says the driver IntcAudioBus....

There is some interesting about the Windows 10 16257 SDK. Specifically, Microsoft usually releases an SDK when the next preview release is moving to the Slow Ring. This time, the release coincides with the newest Fast Ring release. As we reported last week, the most important feature of Windows 10 16257 is Eye Control. Born of Microsoft’s first hackathon, the feature helps users navigate Windows with just their gaze. Among 16257’s other features are improvements for Microsoft Edge and Windows Console improvements....

In an announcement on its Azure blog, Microsoft confirmed Azure Active Directory B2B now allows organizations to use other IDs, namely Google accounts. This is a substantial change as the company previously locked users to a Microsoft Account or Azure AD account. What’s interesting about this is Microsoft is not being crafty and making the Google sign-in process complicated. In fact, just a single sign-on process is in place. It is worth noting that the ability is currently in preview and additional back-end management will need to be conducted before implementing....

Microsoft says the screen would attach to the top and bottom of the device. its gine would be “rotationally secure”, and change the length of the device underneath while rotating to reduce stress on the screen. It further dives into how the hinge would work mechanically, describing its use of a reinforcing material, corrugated pattern, gears, cords, and bridge structures. Needless to say, this is a fairly complex piece of engineering and we don’t fully understand the details....

The app reached general availability in June 2016 and requires an active Office 365 work or school subscription to work. Microsoft Planner makes it easier for businesses to manage teamwork operations, allowing the creation of team-wide email notifications, project due dates, and visual dashboards. Here is the list of things you can do with Microsoft Planner: “Organize work visually: Each plan has its own board, where you can organize tasks into buckets....