At Build, Microsoft does not usually go big on gaming, preferring to focus on other areas of its business. In fact, the company does not have a dedicated gaming conference. Instead, major Xbox and PC Gaming announcements are made at E3 and other events. However, it’s worth noting Microsoft’s “What’s Next” is a series of small introductions into the company’s future plans. In other words, you may not hear about major announcements....

If Microsoft’s plans are true and the company picks up either EA or Valve, it would simply be huge. Firstly, it would be among the biggest tech deals in history. Secondly, many believe it would provide a major disruption to the gaming industry. EA is the world’s largest game publisher. If Microsoft folded the company into Xbox, the company would have huge power over the industry. Similarly, Valve would give Microsoft a lot of clout over other gaming giants....

“The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come....

Yesterday Microsoft expressed its “dismay” at the controversial policy of separating families. However, the company has a conflict of interest in the form of a massive contract with the ICE. Trump’s administration holds a zero-tolerance approach towards undocumented immigrants. The situation has resulted in more than 2,300 children being separated from their parents. After news of Microsoft’s working contract with the ICE emerged, more than 100 employees sent Satya Nadella an open letter....

Of course, these days Microsoft’s core businesses are backed by the cloud. From the Azure cloud services platform to productivity through Office 365. Even Microsoft’s Xbox division is moving into the cloud with Project xCloud. While Windows taps into the cloud (Windows Virtual Desktop), there has never been a true virtualized version of the platform. With Cloud PC, that will change. However, it is worth noting Microsoft won’t be replacing the traditional locally installed version of Windows 10....

“No customer code or data was involved in the observed activities. Our investigation has found a single account had been compromised, granting limited access. Our cybersecurity response teams quickly engaged to remediate the compromised account and prevent further activity,” Microsoft says. “Microsoft does not rely on the secrecy of code as a security measure and viewing source code does not lead to elevation of risk. “Our team was already investigating the compromised account based on threat intelligence when the actor publicly disclosed their intrusion....

SolarWinds related attacks have infected 18,000 organizations, including government agencies. Earlier this week, Microsoft claimed to Business Insider that its services were not a vector for the malware: “Through all of our roles in different investigations, we have not identified any software vulnerability in Microsoft products or cloud services that led to compromise,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “In all cases, Microsoft services were a target in the incidents, after an attacker had gained privileged credentials in some other way....

Additionally, the Admin Center will bring a unified experience including a Call Quality Dashboard and Call Analytics. IT professionals can manage Teams settings at a user level and gain end-to-end insights. Microsoft has detailed all the features in a blog post today: Microsoft Teams messaging policy: Create custom policies for messaging scenarios for your users. User management: Assign policies and configure your users. Microsoft Teams guest messaging settings: Control the messaging capabilities for guest accounts in Microsoft Teams....

Specifically, the company wants to make Cortana Skills Set easier to use for creating “company-specific”. Called the Cortana Skills Kit for Enterprise, the solution pushes Microsoft’s plans to steer Cortana away from consumers and more towards organizations. The original Skills Kit was announced back at Build 2017. It allows developers to create applications and tools to work on the assistant. Available across platforms, the Skills Kit leverages the Microsoft Bot Network to create bots and apps....

According to the company, Z-code models use “Mixture of Experts” learning techniques, which Microsoft says means they are more efficient. That’s because only parts of the model are necessary to complete tasks. Microsoft says the set of Z-code medals will enhance translations driven by machine learning. Furthermore, Translator and Azure AI will support more languages, including those that have less data available for training. Because of their efficiency, the models are significantly more scalable than previous resources, able to handle more parameters without increasing compute load....

To do so, it ensures malicious apps can’t make changes to the registry, via PowerShell cmdlets, and by adjusting group policies. It has been available to Windows Insiders since late 2018, but this signals its readiness for wide deployment. As well as Windows, Tamper Protection is available in Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection. This is Microsoft’s enterprise-grade tool that uses techniques like heuristic analysis to discover threats that traditional AVs would miss....

It has since hosted a 20-minute AMA in which it explained its reasoning, as well as its priorities and trade-offs in the coming year. However, this doesn’t appear to have sated partner program participants, and the video has since been removed from YouTube. So, what are internal use rights, and why are partners so ready to dispute the change? Well, the name is quite self-explanatory. It means they can use Microsoft software in their business, a tiered system determining how many IURs they’re allowed....

In a message posted by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) today, the company confirmed the delay. The message says that a late issue found in the release could compromise customers. Microsoft needs time to resolve the issue before sending it out. “Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for customers in maintaining and protecting their systems. This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today....

Starting with the Surface Laptop 2, the device comes with the matte black finish we have discussed recently. This is the same new color Microsoft introduced earlier in the event for the Surface Pro 6. Elsewhere, Surface chief Panos Panay says attention was paid to the keyboard to deliver an excellent typing experience: “If you don’t get a great typing experience, you can’t stay in the flow,” he says....

However, Microsoft admits a launch of the technology is still some way off. At the moment, the company is demoing ElectionGuard in a controlled environment. Indeed, Microsoft says it will not release any commercial voting machines. Instead, ElectionGuard will be open sourced on GitHub and will be available later this year. That will allow developers to implement the technology into their voting hardware. ElectionGuard makes voting systems auditable and verifiable....

It seems the slowdown in the economy is pushed Microsoft to pause TV advertising. Three sources speaking to Business Insider say the company has ceased all TV ads for the main Microsoft brand. Moreover, there is so far no indication of when the ads will resume. This move was signposted by Variety in an earlier report. According to the publication, Microsoft did not participate in the TV upfronts. This means the company opted out of buying network inventory which would have given it a better rate....

It was solid month for the new browser, which is running on Google’s Chromium base these days. First up is a new feature for the Collections section of the browser. Collections was brought to the Microsoft Edge preview last year before reaching all users in April. Collections can help users organize and share to help keep track easier. Microsoft says the feature leverages “Cloud featured intelligence and an intuitive interface to help you collect, organize and share content” as you browse content on the web....

Sleeping tabs launched fully at Build 2021 after spending several months in preview. Sleeping Tabs offers performance gains when a user has multiple tabs open at once. Microsoft Edge automatically switches background tabs idle and consumes less power. Microsoft points out it can reduce memory usage by 32% and uses 37% less CPU on average. While Microsoft Edge Sleeping Tabs work automatically, users can also take customizable action. Timers can be set on sleeping apps, such as leaving them inactive for a set amount of time before their a put to sleep....

The functionality will be a great assistance to companies who use a hybrid of G Suite and Exchange, allowing for real-time free/busy information, support for Outlook 2010+ clients, and more. New Admin Features Importantly, it also gives admins more tools. They can turn Calendar Interlop on for a domain, use automated tools to verify set up, and view error messages. Naturally, they’ll also be able to track cross-system user requests for free/busy information using the Google Admin console....

“Microsoft OneDrive wants to ensure users have the best possible sync experience on Windows, which is why OneDrive maintains the industry standard of support for NTFS. Microsoft discovered a warning message that should have existed was missing when a user attempted to store their OneDrive folder on a non-NTFS filesystem – which was immediately remedied. Nothing has changed in terms of official support and all OneDrive folders will continue to need to be located on a drive with the NTFS filesystem....