1 Windows 10 version 18032 Windows 10 Version 1709 The Patch Tuesday model is all part of the way Microsoft maintains Windows. Unlike previous versions, Windows 10 receives twice-yearly feature updates (although Microsoft does not call them this). As the name suggests, these bring new features and changes to the platform. Every month between the twice-annual release, the company launches fixes in Patch Tuesday. It is rare that the company roles out a second release in a month....

If you are unfamiliar with the Microsoft K-12 Education Transformation Framework, it is a program to help schools embrace and accelerate digital transformation. Flexibility is a core premise of the program. It allows schools to leverage the newest research gathered by experts, policymakers, and academics. K-12 Education has already been a success for Microsoft. The program has been adopted across 50 countries. Microsoft India says the second Microsoft Education Days event allowed 700 educators, students, Microsoft partners, and school leaders together....

Kaizala is a Microsoft Garage project that was launched last year. enterprise focused solution and provides a secure platform for business chat. Kaizala provides a platform for organizations to set up large group communication and task management. Collaboration, communication, and organizing can all be done through a mobile, without a need for a desktop hub. The difference between Kaizala and something like Microsoft’s Skype for Business is that Kaizala has some unique abilities....

Still, Cortana is the main focus here. The digital assistant has received a couple of new features that will be particularly helpful to parents or drivers. In 4.13, you can ask Cortana to read incoming text messages aloud, which will be a huge help if your hands aren’t free or you have vision issues. This SMS feature actually debuted on Android a few months ago, with Microsoft working on slowly bringing most of the assistant’s functionality to its launcher....

Ground stations are an important part of space travel as they provide data and communication with orbital satellites. Back at Ignite 2020, Microsoft announced Azure Orbital will spearhead its Azure Space plans. Microsoft is also using its Azure Modular Datacenters as part of the Azure Space initiative. These are caravan-sized mobile datacenters for compute and storage that can deploy into remote locations. While Microsoft is leading Azure Orbital with its own datacenters, the company is also teaming with several partners....

It is Microsoft’s answer to the app gap. Many users have criticized the lack of available apps on Windows devices. Universal Windows Platform is designed to entice developers, who can create a single application that will work across all formfactors. However, it seems the demise of Windows Phone through the failure of Windows 10 Mobile means UWP is now finished. While Microsoft has committed to the Universal Windows Platform recently, a decision this week all but kills off the idea....

The agreement, which spans three years, is part of Australia’s plans to become of the world’s top three digital governments by 2025. As well as the cloud suite, Microsoft says its volume licensing agreement “opens the door to accelerated adoption of Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365”. The agreement will have a large impact on the company’s local partners, which number 10,000, making it easier for them to do business with the agencies....

You may already know that since the launch of Windows 10 S, Microsoft has been offering a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for devices running the SKU. The Surface Laptop was included in the deal. The company has extended this promotion through a few cycles, the latest ending on March 31, 2018. While this is likely to be the last extension it still means Surface Laptop users can upgrade for free....

Ahead of the cut off Microsoft has been creating ways for enterprise users to continue to receive security patch. Another option for furthering Windows 7 security support beyond the official endgame has been rolled out. This is a limited time promotion that Microsoft has not advertised much. Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS) customers subscribed to Windows 10 E5, Microsoft 365 E5, or Microsoft 365 E5 Security can now choose to receive Windows 7 Extended Security Updates for a year....

On Tuesday, March 14 (one week from now) at 8:30 a.m. PT, Microsoft will be hosting an online event. The gathering will be for the launch of the Microsoft Teams chat-based workspace for Office 365. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Kirk Koenigsbauer will talk during the event. He will discuss how Microsoft Teams can develop collaboration within and beyond an organization. There will also be some new announcements regarding the platform....

Microsoft lists the vulnerability as CVE-2021-40444 with the following description: “An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the malicious document. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights....

The back-facing speaker could be an ideal solution for parties, social gatherings, and just blasting music throughout the house. The resonant box or subwoofer enclosure would be closed off with a rubber seal on each side of the kickstand to prevent movement and create a strong seal with the surface it’s placed on. This would combine with a software solution to dynamically adjust the audio output of the device. Essentially, the PC could automatically pass audio through the dedicated speaker when the kickstand is open, but use in-built speakers when closed....

The latest Microsoft Patent shows how a Windows 10 dual screen devices will be able to fold. Of course, this may be the 20th patent pointing our how a dual screen mechanism would work. Microsoft is clearly covering all bases, so we can only speculate on what a finalized device will actually look like. Either way, the latest patent was spotted by the folks at Windows Latest and is titled “Manufacture and Optional Calibration methods for displays”....

With a new local datacenter, customers in Mexico will receive cloud services such as Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365 from local locations. Microsoft says it is also planning on bringing an education and skills program to Mexico. Redmond will team with universities to develop a program that allows people to study digital skills. According to Microsoft Mexico general manager Enrique Perezyera, the investment will create an expansion in the country....

If you are unfamiliar with the Breakthrough Energy Catalyst program, it is a creation of Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates. It aims to find and promote new climate-focused technologies. It also pushes for policy changes, promotes innovation, and seeks investment for net-zero. The initiative aims for a global net-zero by 2050. While the project has that goal, it admits reaching it “might be the most difficult challenge humankind has ever taken on....

Of course, Microsoft has some enterprise-grade cloud security tools already. Most notable of them is Microsoft Defender Threat Protection (ATP). It seems Project Freta is not meant to replace ATP. In fact, this is still very much a research project that Microsoft describes as a “technology demonstration”. “Project Freta intends to automate and democratize VM forensics to a point where every user and every enterprise can sweep volatile memory for unknown malware with the push of a button – no setup required,” says Mike Walker,who is a senior director at Microsoft Research’s New, or NExT, Security Ventures team....

You may not have heard of Microsoft Project. It is admittedly a lesser known tool compared to Redmond’s other enterprise-centric offerings. However, it is one of the oldest services on Microsoft’s roster having made its debut way back when Windows launched three decades ago. Of course, a lot has happened to Microsoft Project since then. That said, the focus of the tool has remained the same, to allow teams to assign tasks, schedule, manage budgets, chart progress, and more....

By integrating the two service together, Microsoft will significantly cut down the size of both products. As the company works towards that goal, it will release several major new features during the remainder of this year. In a blog post referencing Build 2020 announcements, Microsoft points to the following features coming to Windows IoT: “Improved OS capabilities, silicon support expansion and cloud capabilities. New OS capabilities will include OS size reduction of up to 40%, which can enable smaller-footprint devices....

Part of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X shortage is related to a wider cut in available GPUs and CPUs from AMD. Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer confirmed an issue sourcing enough AMD components, which are used in the Series X|S condoles. “I get some people [asking], ‘why didn’t you build more? Why didn’t you start earlier? Why didn’t you ship them earlier?’ All of those things,” Spencer says on the Major Nelson podcast....

In an advisory, US-CERT says Microsoft fixed the flaws during its December Patch Tuesday event last month. You can find both of the vulnerabilities listed by the company as CVE-2018-8611 and CVE-2018-8626. CVE-2018-8611 is described as a kernel elevation that occurs across all Windows and Windows Server clients. “An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows kernel fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode....