According to Microsoft, Universal Print will become a permanent part of OneDrive. In other words, users of the cloud storage and file sharing platform will be able to tap into the printing tool: “Before Universal Print, an IT admin or device owner had to install a printer on the device so they could use it to print documents. In a large organization where people often have multiple devices and use multiple printers, this experience can range from inconvenient to completely unmanageable....

Under the new policy terms, Bing Ads will also clamp down on ads for weapon accessories, such as attachments and reloading products. Microsoft points out that it already banned advertising weapons and ammunition. The company says the further restrictions have been implemented to bring consistency to Bing policies: “This change will also help reduce confusion about products advertised. Many of the recreational type guns like air rifles look like real guns and consumers may be led to click on offers that are different than their expectations....

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei was effectively banned from working with U.S. companies earlier this year. Concerns over 5G tech being used to aid the Chinese government led the Department of Commerce (DoC) to place Huawei on its entity list. This means Huawei cannot purchase from U.S. suppliers. Furthermore, the company cannot access services like Android after Google adhered to the list. The situation has harmed Huawei’s chances of growth in several markets....

Default is the important word here. Microsoft will continue to offer 32-bit versions of Office apps, but they won’t be recommended. This makes sense. It has been interesting to see even modern installations of Office install the 32-bit apps by default, with 64-bit as an added option. The company made the announcement at Ignite 2018, where Office 2019 was moved to general availability. Not only will the suite be 64-bit by default, but the cloud service Office 365 will follow suit....

KB4535996 was rolled out last month to solve a long-standing issue with Windows Search. While it did its job, it also caused all-new problems, something that is becoming all too familiar with Windows updates. Users reported the Sign Tool that allows users to sign their credentials on documents was broken. Worse, many complained that the patch prevented them from booting their machines. Complaints range from machines taking a long time to boot up to getting completely stuck in the start cycle....

The popular Netflix Original Series has dropped today (July 4) and it seems Microsoft is involved in a cross-promotion. Stranger Things Season 3 is set in 1985, the same year in which Microsoft’s launched Windows 1.0 for the first time. While the show is streaming from today, we have yet to see if Windows 1.0 features in the season. While it is likely that’s the case, we have to get a bit pedantic....

It seems Microsoft has been working behind the scenes to make Cortana catch up. Still it is another example of the company’s assistant lacking the functionality of Alexa. Perhaps there’s little wonder that Alexa has been making moves on Windows 10 and Xbox, while also integrating with Cortana these days. Jonathan says he recently purchased a new Xbox One and found the new Cortana feature as part of Xbox Skill....

Windows Sets is a tabbing system that will work across Windows 10. Essentially a universal tab ability for applications. It works like tabs on a web browser, allowing users to open a tab in an application by clicking a + symbol in the title bar. A new tab will show recent apps, documents, and a search. According to Tero Alhonen, references for Sets are found in the Windows 10 SDK for version 19577....

Bloomberg reports U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to become involved in the contract. As we have discussed in the past, some cloud companies are unhappy with the terms of the JEDI contract. Trump’s Involvement It seems some Republican members of Congress agree with Orcale’s stance. They have written to the White House arguing the terms of the JEDI contract have frozen some cloud providers out. Trump is reportedly angered by this development and has ordered the Pentagon to provide him with more information regarding JEDI....

The B-Series VMs have been available in preview since September. Now they are moving to general availability. These are the lowest cost flexible vCPU VMs available, coming in six different sizes. These combustible B-Series virtual machines are ideal for workloads such as smaller databases and web servers. Customers get a consistent baseline CPU performance across a flexible range of sizes and value. “These sizes are available in East US, East US2, West US, Central US, North Central US, South Central US, North Europe, West Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan West, Australia East, Australia South East, Central India, Canada Central, Canada East, West US2, UK South, UK West and Korea Central....

In a blog post, Microsoft has gone into great detail about the feature. In summary, Hot Reload gives developers on .NET and native C++ apps the ability to boost productivity during the build process of their applications. In terms of code, the new Hot Reload, it can work alongside the existing XAML Hot Reload feature. Furthermore, it also works in unison with debugger capabilities like breakpoints that are already part of Visual Studio 2022 Preview....

These capabilities include non-traditional devices that aren’t connected to the business’ domain. In the case of personal devices used for business, admins can enforce policies without any infrastructure or MDM services. Instead, policies are assigned via Azure Active Directory and implemented when users log in to their Office 365 ProPlus account. Microsoft is touting the following features: “Build a policy configuration that includes the policies you want to enforce, configured as needed for your organization’s needs....

ONNX Runtime is a high-performance inference engine for machine learning creations across Windows, Linux, and Mac. Developers can use the service to train AI models in any framework and turn these models to production in the cloud and edge. Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) creates a standard open platform for AI models that will work across frameworks. Its main features include: “Framework interoperability: Developers can more easily move between frameworks and use the best tool for the task at hand....

It is worth noting the latest version of Microsoft Defender ATP is only available to users running macOS 10.15.4 or newer. Another notable detail is that the new feature will not begin rolling out to the platform until next month. In terms of the new Network Protection tools, Microsoft says users will now have added mitigation against attacks. Specifically, the new feature will reduce attack surfaces when internet-based hacks occur....

German IT firm AV-TEST compared 20 different anti-virus tools, including some of the biggest names on the market. As has happened in previous tests, Microsoft Defender continues to score high marks in the test. “During November and December 2021 we continuously evaluated 20 home user security products using their default settings. We always used the most current publicly-available version of all products for the testing. They were allowed to update themselves at any time and query their in-the-cloud services....

As Patch Tuesday roll outs are for all supported Windows platforms, the issues affect Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7. As usual, Microsoft has released documentation describing the known issues affecting Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. The company has also offered some details workarounds for users experiencing problems: Known Issue: After installing this update, Internet Explorer may fail to load images with a backslash () in their relative source path....

Microsoft’s browser is now available on mobile, macOS, and Linux and Windows versions 10, 7, 8, 8.1. As Microsoft continues to expand Edge to more users, there are other horizons to cross. No, that does not mean Chromebooks, at least not yet. But it does mean Apple’s new M1 chip. This is the silicon that launched in Apple’s first ever ARM MacBook’s earlier this month. M1 is receiving rave reviews for performance and battery, and the new generation of MacBook’s are expected to be successful....

Microsoft Edge has already tested these features through its Beta experience on iOS. Now the features are all ready to roll out to general users. One of the new additions to the app is protected organizational websites for users singing in through work or school Microsoft Accounts. Users can now also sync notes jotted with Windows Ink on their PC to Microsoft Edge on iOS. In terms of books, Microsoft has made ebook tools more robust....

To facilitate the new form factor, Microsoft Edge engineers have proposed a new web concept. By mixing existing and new APIs, the team envisions how browsing will differ on a folding screen. Of course, the core difference in a folding device is it can be a dual-screened product or a single pane tablet. Microsoft says internal tests are underway for creating a unique user experience for folding screen tech. Available as a GitHub project, the Microsoft Edge team explains what issues current folding screen tech (think the Samsung Galaxy Fold) have:...

“When collecting data from multiple workbooks, it’s often desirable to link directly to the data. Why? It provides a record of where the data was sourced and, if the data changes, you can easily refresh it. This has made Workbook Link support a highly requested feature for our web users.” Until this release, users would need to access the Microsoft Excel app on desktop (Windows or Mac) to link workbooks....