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Media Feature Pack has been updated to support Windows 10 May 2019 Update. Microsoft says the pack is for users running Windows 10 N, which is a specific Win10 version that comes without media tools. In other words, the Media Feature Pack provides media controls to Windows 10 N. Among the tools missing in Windows 10 N are Cortana, Windows Mixed Reality, and Windows Hello. Media Feature Pack adds these services and has been supported in Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 Update)....

The Mail application on Windows 10 now supports stylus use. Microsoft has updated the app on the Insider, so Windows Insiders can now test the changes. The draw tab from Windows Ink is now available in Mail. Of course, the main positive of this support is Windows 10 users can now write emails with a stylus. Whatever you write will be translated to the screen for sending. Microsoft says an array of pen options are available and a full color selection too....

Though it’s almost 10-years old, Minecraft’s Bedrock Edition allows cross-play on Switch, Xbox One, PC, Gear VR, Fire TV, and Mobile. The company has called on Sony to enable PS4 several times and is doing so again in light of recent news. “We believe in giving gamers the opportunity to play the games they want with the people they want,” said a spokesperson to Windows Central. “Whether that means working with our partners to deliver cross-network play with games like ‘Rocket League’ and ‘Fortnite’ or enabling cross-device play with the likes of Minecraft, we are supportive of new scenarios that enable more people to play and have fun together while gaming....

The first video is accompanied by an announcement by Senior Technical Evangelist Seth Juarez. He will also be the host of the show as he meets with MVPs from around the world. In the first episode, Juarez speaks to Shih-Ming Tung, a Windows Development MVP. Tung is also a software engineer at Yahoo. In the video, he discusses his career as a C#, Xamarin and iOS development expert. Interestingly, Tung also explains how he used Microsoft seminars and learning materials to build his own bot....

In a new email circulated internally throughout Microsoft, Satya Nadella has focused directly on racial discrimination. He discusses several steps Microsoft is taking to push for change. Nadella says Microsoft is seeking to improve the “lived experience”. In the email, the CEO points to Microsoft’s plan to tackle inequality and injustice in African American communities. Satya Nadella says the company is embarking on a five-year plan across three different focuses:...

Described as “world class”, the data centers will be the greenest ever, not just in Sweden and not just from Microsoft. The company says the locations will be powered entirely from renewable energy sources and it plans no waste will be generated from operations. Gävle and Sandviken, two towns north of the capital Stockholm, have been chosen as the bases for the data centers. Microsoft has partnered with sustainable energy provider Vattenfall AB to deliver the required power....

Many have thought it unlikely that developers of existing titles will update their games with 4K or HDR support, which would make it unwise to buy the console at launch. Microsoft previously announced a list of 162 ‘Xbox One X Enhanced’ titles, but it wasn’t clear how many would be available immediately. A week away from release, we have an answer, and it’s quite reasonable. — Albert Penello (@albertpenello) October 30, 2017...

In a statement, Microsoft said hackers obtained subject lines of emails and the names of people within conversations. While this Outlook.com breach was problematic, the company played down the severity. “Our notification to the majority of those impacted noted that bad actors would not have had unauthorized access to the content of e-mails or attachments,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “A small group (~6 percent of the original, already limited subset of consumers) was notified that the bad actors could have had unauthorized access to the content of their email accounts, and was provided with additional guidance and support....

According to a post on its partner.microsoft.com website, the company did not explain why the change was being made. Partner resellers of Microsoft products has typically been able to use those service internally at no cost. “Effective July 1, 2020, we will retire the internal use rights (IUR) association with the product licenses partners receive in the Microsoft Action Pack and included with a competency. Product license use rights will be updated to be used for business development scenarios such as demonstration purposes, solution/services development purposes, and internal training,” Microsoft said Furthermore, is doing more to reduce the number of on-premises perks partners receive, including easing back on support for Microsoft Action Pack (MAP)....

As the name suggests, Spatial Anchor is not a persistent marker, but instead works when spatial awareness is needed. Microsoft says the apparatus will work alongside rival AR solutions like ARKit and ARCore, which are also supported on HoloLens 2. In related documentation, Microsoft says, “a spatial anchor represents an important point in the world that the system should keep track of over time.” Each anchor has a coordinate system that adjusts as needed, relative to other anchors or frames of reference, in order to ensure that anchored holograms stay precisely in place....

As we have discussed before, Visual Studio 2017 installs faster than previous versions. Users can customize elements they want to use and leave others. This means installs come with less components. By employing this method, users can start up the suite three times faster than Visual Studio 2015. With version 15.4, productivity improvements have been added to make the suite more efficient. C#, VB, and Python developers can now navigate through projects more easily with Ctrl+Click to reach Go To Definition....

Two years after the Xbox One S arrived and nearly a year after the debut of the Xbox One X, Microsoft says it is readying Dolby Vision support. The consoles have supported HDR10 Color, a 4K standard used by many display manufacturers. However, 4K screens using the Dolby Vision standard have not been supported. Microsoft is now changing this and will be important. Indeed, the Xbox One will join Apple TV 4K and Google Chromecast Ultra as the only streaming-capable devices supporting Dolby Vision....

A new report from Windows Central suggests Microsoft is currently testing the Career system in Xbox Live. If that is the case, it could point to the company debuting the system alongside Redstone 4. The next major Windows update is due to drop this spring, giving Microsoft time to finalize the Career concept. Xbox Corporate Vice President Mike Ybarra hinted towards the Career direction last summer. He said the company was working on changing the Achievement system....

When there is no alt text on an image, a screen reader will describe the image as an “unlabeled graphic” to users. The is hardly useful. In Microsoft Edge, the browser now has an update for its screen reader that will boost its functionality on images without alternative text: “When a screen reader finds an image without a label, that image can be automatically processed by machine learning (ML) algorithms to describe the image in words and capture any text it contains,” says Travis Leithead, a program manager on Microsoft’s Edge platform team....

A team at the JavaScript security firm otto-js were testing script detection when they found the unusual activity. Furthermore, if users access the “Show Password” option when entering their password, this information is also sent to the companies. It seems anything put into a form when the spellcheckers are active will be sent. However, the researchers say Google only receives the information temporarily: “The text typed by the user may be sensitive personal information and Google does not attach it to any user identity and only processes it on the server temporarily....

This is a major addition for the web version of the Office app, giving users the ability to analyze data from major sets. Microsoft’s Excel desktop application has had this ability for some time, but this is new for the browser version. Users can build PivotTables and analyze and filter to gain insights on data from large sets in Power BI. In a blog post announcing the feature, Microsoft details how the integration works for Power BI users: “For example, you can get up-to-date insights by refreshing the PivotTable, or conduct explorations by manipulating the PivotTable fields all in a browser....

Now the initial hype is over, we have some more details about what exactly the Fluent Design System is, how it will start, and how it will grow. The first thing to understand is that Fluid is closely tied to AR and VR. As we switch from 2D to 3D, more efficient ways of doing interface arise. However, the technology isn’t mainstream yet, and people aren’t going to want a headset on their face 24/7....

With the additional Extended Support, Windows Server and SQL Server customers now get 16 years of total support. Microsoft points out that normal support is five years for Mainstream and five years for Extended support. Microsoft says it introduced Windows Server and SQL Server Premium Assurance to offer more flexibility. The company launched Windows Server Premium Assurance back in December, albeit for a scheduled release in early 2017. “This helps you continue to meet compliance requirements and ensure security on systems you aren’t ready to update....

According to reports, August Patch Tuesday includes a fix for a Windows 10 zero-day flaw that was first reported way back in 2018. Specifically, in the CVE-2020-1464 fix, Microsoft plugged a hole across Windows versions to solve improper handling of file signatures. Microsoft confirms this fix in its release notes: “A spoofing vulnerability exists when Windows incorrectly validates file signatures. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could bypass security features and load improperly signed files....

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update has been plagued by problems, including Task Manager issues and deleting personal files through manual updates. Microsoft was forced to pull the update from release. It is recovering now through the Insider program in preview form, which is where the ZIP fix was issued. We reported last week Windows 10 October 2018 Update users complained of issues when extracting files from a ZIP archive....