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It is arguable that Microsoft’s discovery of the pair od zero-day exploits came by chance. The company was analysing a PDF sample of a potential exploit for a Windows kernel flaw. That PDF was sent by ESET senior malware researcher Anton Cherepanov. While looking into that potential vulnerability, Microsoft stumbled upon two entirely different zero-day exploits. The first was a flaw in Adobe services, while the second affected older Microsoft platforms like Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008....

In India, Microsoft could count a major cost for ransomware attacks on Windows. The country is pushing the company to offer customers a one-time discount on Windows 10 upgrades. Authorities say 50 million Windows users should be able to upgrade to Windows 10 at a lower price to better combat ransomware. So, is Microsoft being held to ransom over ransomware? Well, it does seem that way, but reports in India suggest the company’s division in the country has agreed in principle to the discount....

Matt Miller, a Microsoft security engineer, told attendees the company has shored up its products and widescale attacks through security flaws are rare. Miller says Microsoft’s ongoing improvement of security features has helped protect customers. Among those features are on-by-default firewalls, Protected View in Office, Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and app sandboxing. Essentially, low-level cyberattacks are now finding it nearly impossible to rupture Microsoft’s security blanket. As for more sophisticated attacks, those attacks are finding it much more difficult....

By adding Capture to Event Hubs, cloud customers get methods for data retention and downstream micro-batch processing. It allows the ability to pull data directly from Event Hubs to Azure Data Lake Store. With Capture, streaming data in Event Hubs can be automatically delivered to Azure Blob storage and Data Lake Store. This provides important flexibility when selecting time or size intervals. Microsoft says using Event Hubs is the simplest method to load streaming data in Azure....

For some reason, the software has been delayed. By how much depends, but it is certainly launching months behind schedule. If we look at Windows Server as a release barometer, Hyper-V Server 2019 may be as much as eight months late. Sure, Hyper-V Server is a standalone product that is free. It uses the same technology and is highly linked to Windows Server 2019, with the 2019 build arriving in a Windows Server preview last summer....

We will discuss VS 2017 first. This is the latest preview for Visual Studio 2017 and comes with Windows 10 SDK preview 17754 baked into the UWP development Workload. This allows dev’s to access APIs from Windows 10 more efficiently. With VS 2017 version 15.9 Preview 2 comes with several new feature which are detailed below: You can now import and export an installation configuration file that specifies which workloads and components should be installed with an instance of Visual Studio....

Of course, getting an update for Microsoft Office can potentially be exciting with new features a possibility. However, Version 2212 is a more modest release that does not offer any new features or major changes. Instead, Microsoft is focusing on issuing fixes for known problems across Word, PowerPoint, and Office Suite: Fixed the issue responsible for failing to create presentations in PowerPoint Fixed the issue where text in Word was unexpectedly hidden by a shape...

Ahead of the Xbox E3 event, Microsoft will open the sale on Thursday, June 7. Customers can save big on accessories and titles. However, the big part of this sale is a $50 discount on Xbox One consoles. This includes all consoles, even the flagship Xbox One X. With the sale coming in three days, here are the offers that will be available: $199 for 500GB Xbox One S console, whiles supplies last $249 for 1TB Xbox One S bundles such as the the Xbox One S PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Bundle, or Xbox One S Starter Bundle, $449 for Xbox One X console through June 23....

The announcement follows Microsoft’s wide announcements for HoloLens made this month. In an effort to increase business-use for the headset and Windows Mixed Reality, Microsoft will look to work with more companies. Abcomrents operates in North America and is a specialist in renting LCD video walls, touch screen displays, kiosks, and other display-centered products. Microsoft says customers in North American will be able to rent HoloLens from Abcomrents, with other markets to launch in coming months....

1 New York Expansion2 TV White Spaces This partnership further expands Microsoft’s TV White Spaces project, which was trademarked as Airband earlier this year. With 19.4 million rurally located people in the United States without broadband, there is a need to connect more residents. RTO Wireless says it will leverage its technology to brings fixed and mobile wireless internet to these areas. The company will use its own TV white spaces and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) to deliver the connectivity....

Importantly, this release is also the first to support WinUI 3. However, as that 0.5 version number suggests, Project Reunion remains in preview. Still, developers can now use the platform for their production application. Project Reunion integrates Microsoft’s current Win32 and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) APIs. Win32 apps are legacy applications, while UWP is Microsoft’s modern app API. Under Project Reunion, the tool will also be available independently from Windows, allowing dev’s to use tools like Budget....

Azure Machine Learning is a platform that allows users to create analytic solutions in a cloud-based environment. The service offers a simple UI and is noted for being a powerful tool for customers. The machine learning platform merges Microsoft’s cloud technology through Azure with its analytic tools such as Cortana Intelligence. Using Azure Machine Learning, developers create, trains, and roll out artificial intelligence (AI) models. Microsoft also announced upgrades to Azure Stream Analytics on Azure IoT Edge....

The arrival of Skype Preview on Xbox One means that users of the console now have two ways to make Skype calls on their Xbox. Microsoft’s console already comes with a native app for the service, called Skype on Xbox One, which contains Xbox One-only elements. Xbox One Skype Preview still without CompactOverlay Just two days ago, Microsoft rolled out a new update for the Skype Preview app on Windows 10....

1 Windows 10 Build 161882 Windows 10 Mobile Build 15210 Changelog Windows 10 Build 16188 Of course, there’s a lot more depth than it appears on the surface, and Microsoft has made tons of minor tweaks that improve the quality of life. Here’s the full changelog for PC: “Awesome new features in Microsoft Edge’s PDF Reader: PDF Form filling: Now you can fill in PDF based forms within Microsoft Edge, save them and print them!...

This was a surprise as Microsoft has largely steered away from filling its apps and services with ads. Mail and Calendar users were unhappy about the change and Redmond faced a backlash. Microsoft quickly confirmed on Twitter it had turned off the feature. This week, the company says it has not removed the ad code entirely from Mail and Calendar. This means the feature is not even inactive on the app and has been removed entirely....

In its announcement, Microsoft revealed several new improvements for Framework. Version 4.7.1 brings accessibility improvements in narration and focus control areas. SHA-2 support in ASP.NET is now more secure, while .NET Standard 2.0 now gets support from .NET Framework. As usual, .NET Framework 4.7.1 is available across a wide range of Windows versions. Customers running the platform on Windows 10 (Anniversary Update and above), Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1 can download this update....

“All your files—even online files—can be seen in File Explorer and work just like every other file on your device,” explains Windows Insider head Donar Sarkar. “You’ll be able to open online files from within desktop or Windows Store apps using the Windows file picker. And you’re covered in both your home and professional life since it works with your personal and work OneDrive, as well as your SharePoint Online team sites....

This has led to Microsoft issuing public pleas to the CMA, asking the authority to allow the merger to go ahead. However, the CMA admits it has issues with the acquisition and will conduct a thorough review. According to the watchdog, there are concerns “Microsoft’s anticipated purchase of Activision Blizzard could substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services.” Sony has been a vocal leader in the backlash against the deal....

1 WikiLeaks2 Digital Geneva Convention The interview comes during the same week where data privacy for users is once again in the headlines. Smith was talking after the Westminster terror attack in London, for which Microsoft provided information to UK law enforcement. Earlier today, we reported that the company acted within 30 minutes to give UK authorities information related to the recent terror attack in London. Smith says the information was given after the company assessed that the request was legal and valid....

The Game Stack Live team has posted the full schedule on its blog, with sessions about Xbox Series X and xCloud, how The Coalition built Gears 5, and how to be inclusive in game design. Essentially, it’s mostly the social and networking aspect of GDC 2020 that developers will be missing on the Microsoft side of things. That will still be a major disappointment for some, but it’s probably better than catching coronavirus....