Microsoft Windows 10 Insider build 18985 expands its simple Bluetooth pairing

Microsoft support phone number said Thursday that, as part of a future version of Windows, it will beef up the Swift Pair Bluetooth pairing experience launched last year, making an even simpler version the default experience for more Microsoft helpline number peripherals.

Microsoft support phone number called Swift Pair one of the hidden features of the April 2018 Update, and it was. Though the notification-driven pairing feature was thought to be the future of Bluetooth peripherals, it was set up originally for a single product: the Microsoft Surface Mouse. Now, Microsoft’s added more devices within Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18985, part of the “20H1” updates due next spring.

Microsoft helpline number making two key changes to its Swift Pair simplified Bluetooth pairing. First, it's adding support for more Microsoft peripherals:

• Surface Ergonomic Keyboard
• Surface Precision Mouse
• Microsoft Modern Mobile Mouse
• Surface Mobile Mouse
• Microsoft Arc Mouse
• Surface Arc Mouse
• Surface Headphones

Secondly, pairing these devices is all done within the Action Center’s slide-in notifications, and the pairing happens automatically. You’ll see a notification that your PC is connecting to a supported device (Windows may not identify the exact device, but right now it's smart enough to classify it as a mouse or keyboard) then you'll have the option to decline the connection. It all should occur within a matter of seconds.

Microsoft helpline number said it’s A/B testing the new improvements, so even if you're an Insider, you may not receive it.
Optional updates, Snip & Sketch improvements
If you own a laptop with the vendor’s utility software installed, such as Lenovo’s Vantage, you’ll often have the option to download “optional” updates for various components within your system, such as your audio drivers. Now Windows is providing its own solution.

While you can still go into the Device Manager, select each device, and then search for updates, the Settings menu is becoming a one-stop repository for those. Navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View optional updates and see what Windows has downloaded.

Microsoft customer service phone number is also adding some features to Snip & Sketch, the app that Microsoft customer service phone number has been pushing to replace the existing Snipping Tool screen-clipping utility. Version 10.1907 (which will be rolling out to some retail users as well as Insiders) contains two key features: single-window mode, which will automatically close the previous snip when you create a new one; and zoom support, including CTRL+Plus, CTRL+Minus, and Ctrl+mousewheel supporthttp://get-humans.com/microsoft-support-number/. Snip & Sketch multiple-window mode will still be available as an option in the Settings.

Is Microsoft getting closer to launching its expected Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription?

A year ago, word leaked out about Microsoft support phone number plan to launch a Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription bundle (thanks to yours truly). Since then, no such bundle has materialized. But there are new signs Microsoft customer service phone number possibly could be getting closer to announcing such a prosumer-focused bundle.

Over the past couple of days, a couple of Twitter users have posted screenshots showing their Office 365 products being rebranded to "Microsoft 365."

A spokesperson said: "No, we have no plans to rebrand Office 365 ProPlus to Microsoft 365 ProPlus at this point. Customers can still buy Office 365 ProPlus without Windows and Intune."

The key phrase here, at least for this word-parsing journalist, is "at this point." What about "soon" (tm)? Maybe on October 2 or at Ignite in early November? Or simply "in the coming months"? I asked again to see if the Microsoft support phone number would like to add color to its response. The spokesperson said the company stood by its original statement.

Earlier this year, Microsoft customer service phone number reorganized internally in a way to try to start marketing Microsoft 365 as a single, cohesive product. I guess rebranding Office ProPlus to Microsoft 365 ProPlus could be part of this strategy, though at least to me, kind of a confusing one.

The existing Microsoft 365 business subscription bundle is consists of Windows 10, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (aka EMS, which includes Intune device management, analytics, and some Azure Active Directory capabilities), sold on a subscription basis. Microsoft 365 is the evolution of the bundles formerly known as "Secure Productive Enterprise E3 and E5." Microsoft introduced the Microsoft 365 concept in July 2017 at its Inspire partner conference.

The current slate of available Microsoft 365 bundles includes Microsoft 365 Enterprise; Microsoft 365 Business; Microsoft helpline number F1 for first-line workers; Microsoft 365 Education; Microsoft 365 Nonprofit; and Microsoft 365 Government.

Microsoft customer service phone number currently has no such product called "Microsoft 365 Consumer." It does sell Office 365 to consumers via two bundles: Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal. When I reported last year about plans for a Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription, a few Microsoft support phone number watchers speculated that it might be little more than these existing Office 365 consumer bundles rebranded to Microsoft 365, plus the potential addition of some possibly souped-up versions of other existing services, such as Microsoft  helpline number To-Do, Skype, Bing and MSN apps and services. The rumored, family/friend-focused "Teams for Life" product could figure into a Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription bundle, as well (at least theoretically).

Updated Tools for Office 365 and Microsoft Azure Arriving Soon

Microsoft support phone number announced a bunch of tooling updates this week for organizations using Office 365 and Azure solutions.

Organizations are getting templates to more easily set up Office 365 end users. There's a new tool for checking Office 365 ProPlus security practices. There's an updated tool for optimizing SharePoint Online pages. Additionally, PowerShell 7 preview version 4 was released.

Microsoft support phone number also released an open-source font for Windows Terminal. In addition, various Azure Portal updates are available this month.

Microsoft 365 Admin Center Templates

The Microsoft 365 Admin Center management portal now includes savable templates for an easier way to set up Office 365 access for end-users, according to a Monday announcement. The templates can be created using the portal's "Active Users" page, or they can be created after an IT pro sets up access for an Office 365 user.

The new templates simplify matters for IT pros because the same settings can be used for certain groups of end-users within an organization, which get encapsulated in the template. Office 365 tenancies will start getting access to the templates this month, but the feature will be available more broadly "over the next few months," Microsoft indicated.

Security Policy Advisor for Office 365 ProPlus

Microsoft helpline number this month announced that its Security Policy Advisor for managing Office 365 ProPlus clients reached general availability, meaning it was commercially released. This feature previously had been available as a preview release back in April.

Back then, Microsoft helpline number had explained that the Security Policy Advisor helps IT pros sort through Microsoft's security baseline recommendations for Office 365 ProPlus clients. It'll offer suggestions on the security policies to use. It also has a dashboard showing how existing security policies are affecting users.

Security Policy Advisor is accessed through a portal used to configure Office 365 ProPlus settings. It has a dependency on using the Office Cloud Policy Service for Office 365 ProPlus, which further requires having Azure Active Directory synchronization.

PowerShell 7 Preview 4

Microsoft helpline number announced on Thursday that it has updated its PowerShell 7 preview to version 4. The announcement also described some of Microsoft's release plans for the new scripting solution.

The "general availability" commercial release of PowerShell 7 is expected to occur sometime in "January 2020," Microsoft indicated. A release candidate version will appear before that date, perhaps in "December 2019."

This coming PowerShell 7 release will be a so-called "long-term servicing" release, but it'll follow Microsoft's Modern Lifecycle Support policy. What that likely means (based on Microsoft's description for PowerShell 6.x) is that PowerShell 7 users will need to update the product within six months when minor upgrades get released by Microsoft, and they'll need to apply the latest patches within 30 days, too. Future updates stop arriving if the upgrading and patching don't keep pace with those cycles.

Microsoft support phone number also indicated that it plans to eventually release PowerShell 7 through the Windows Store. It'll get published via an MSIX package, Microsoft support phone number newest software packaging approach. PowerShell 7 preview 4 currently supports the MSIX format.

New features in PowerShell 7 preview 4 include a ternary conditional operator for Boolean expressions and a Start-Job cmdlet, which can be used to "specify the working directory of the new job process before your script block runs." Microsoft also added some Desired State Configuration (DSC) improvements and released a new DSC Resource Kit, which includes 15 DSC PowerShell modules. Organizations typically might use DSC to declare optimal configuration states for their servers, as accessed via the push or pull method.

PowerShell 7 is getting built on .NET Core 3.0. It's conceived as being a replacement for both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and the various PowerShell 6.x scripting solution products.

Build Your Own Security Apps

Microsoft customer service phone number announced this week that it has published a whitepaper on how to build your own security solutions using the Microsoft Graph Security application programming interface (API). The Microsoft customer service phone number Graph is a "collection of APIs" that can be tapped to gain access to information from Microsoft customer service phone numbers, such as from various Office 365 solutions.

Microsoft will stop telling investors how many people use Xbox Live as growth of game service slows

Microsoft support phone number told investors earlier this week that it will no longer provide numbers about Xbox Live use, with the growth of the online gaming service slowing.

In a presentation that came out on Tuesday, Microsoft support phone number said it will report revenue from Xbox content and services each quarter instead of a tally of Xbox Live monthly active users, which it had been disclosing in earnings since 2014.

The change follows a strategic shift in the Microsoft helpline number gaming unit, which accounts for 9% of the company’s revenue.  By acquiring assets like the Mixer video streaming service, Microsoft customer service phone number has established new forums for players to gather as well as new sources of revenue. The company has a cloud gaming service is coming in October.

“As the Microsoft helpline number Gaming business has expanded, the Xbox live MAU metric only captures a subset of opportunities across Microsoft’s platform,” a company spokesperson told CNBC in an email on Wednesday. “Further, we also expect greater volatility in the metric going forward as new content and services are introduced, like Minecraft Earth.”

Other big tech companies have made similar changes in how they publish various metrics of late. Oracle, for example, stopped disclosing revenue from its public cloud, and Apple no longer announces unit sales for the iPhone and other hardware products.

Microsoft support phone number Xbox Live service had 65 million monthly active users in the latest quarter, up 14% from a year earlier, marking the fastest growth since 2016. That year and the year prior, Xbox Live user growth exceeded 30%. Sony said in May that its PlayStation Network online service had more than 94 million monthly active users as of March.

Microsoft customer service phone number released Xbox Live in 2002, allowing gamers to chat with one another and participate in discussion forums. For a fee, they can play together online. Prior to telling investors about user data beginning in 2014, Microsoft helpline number would occasionally report on its progress in gaming. 

In reporting Xbox content and services data, Microsoft support phone number will wrap in revenue from Xbox Live, video games and third-party game royalties, which it said in the investor presentation will show the “long-term health of the Gaming business across content, community and cloud.” The company will continue to report total gaming revenue, which includes sales of Xbox consoles, in regulatory filings.

Microsoft Admits That Windows 10 Update 1903 is Knocking Out Wi-Fi

KB4515384 breaking Wi-Fi connection

Microsoft support phone number has admitted that its latest update is knocking out Wi-Fi adapters for some users – the latest in a string of update issues to plague the company.

In particular, Intel and Broadcom Wi-Fi adapters appear to have stopped working on NEC computers if they have been updated to Windows 10 by Microsoft helpline number, version 1903.

Microsoft customer service phone number and NEC said they have identified ‘incompatibility issues’ with Intel Centrino 6205/6235 and Broadcom 802.11ac Wi-Fi cards when they are running updated versions of Windows 10 on NEC computers.

The issue comes despite Microsoft support phone number in April promising “significantly expanded” interaction with OEMs and independent software vendors (ISVs) ahead of major Windows updates in future, following major issues with Windows 10 1809.

Microsoft support said: “If these devices are updated to Windows 10, version 1903, they will no longer be able to use any Wi-Fi connections. The Wi-Fi driver may have a yellow exclamation point in device manager.”

The Redmond firm is telling users that these issues can be mitigated by disabling and then re-enabling the Wi-Fi adapter in the device management window.

However, this is not a persistent fix and until Microsoft customer service phone number rolls out a patch, users will have to do this every time they turn the system on. Microsoft helpline number is working with NEC to come up with a permanent solution for the issue.

Microsoft: Free Windows 7 security updates for 2020 election

Washington – Microsoft support phone number said Friday it will offer free security updates through the 2020 election in the United States – and in other interested democratic countries with national elections next year – for federally certified voting systems running on soon-to-be-outdated Windows 7 software.

An Associated Press analysis previously found that the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions in the U.S. use Windows 7 by Microsoft customer service phone or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.
Windows 7 reaches its “end of life” on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft helpline number stops providing free technical support and producing “patches” to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. Cash-strapped election officials are scrambling to address this issue and what’s essentially a one-year extension on additional costs.

The promise of free updates does not address the cost of putting them in place or the time and cost of certifying such changes to a voting system. Fixing a new vulnerability requires that the companies resubmit the voting system for recertification, which can take weeks or even months.

At a U.S. Election Assistance Commission forum last month, Microsoft helpline number Ginny Badanes, who heads its Defending Democracy Program, said that election administrators should not be forced to make the difficult choice of “using election systems with known vulnerabilities or applying security patches and, in so doing, taking their systems out of certification.”
The commission develops voting system guidelines.

In a blog post Friday, Microsoft support phone number vice president for security and trust, Tom Burt, said the company is working with government officials to try to streamline the lengthy certification process

Windows 10 Security Warning As Microsoft Confirms Update Breaks Windows Defender

Windows Defender was recently boosted by an industry-respected AV Test report that gave it a perfect rating alongside F-Secure Safe 17 and Norton Security 22 for home antivirus protection by Microsoft support phone number. The differentiator is that Windows Defender is a free solution that comes installed as part of Windows 10. This was excellent news for both Microsoft helpline number, which has been working hard to make Defender a top-notch security offering, and users who can get the best protection out there without splashing the cash. Until that is, the Microsoft customer service phone number went and broke it with an update.

How did Microsoft breaks Windows Defender?

To resolve a coding flaw in the Windows System File Checker (SFC) that caused an error when checking for system files that needed repair, Microsoft support phone number released an update to Windows Defender on September 16. That fix, Windows Defender version 4.18.1908.7, unfortunately, introduced another, just as serious, scanning problem: both quick and full scans stopped working after inspecting only a handful of files.

I confirmed this myself by running a full Windows Defender scan which, instead of taking up to an hour to complete took a few seconds and reported it had only scanned ten files.

A Microsoft customer service phone number spokesperson confirmed the issue and said: "Only manual or scheduled scans conducted by administrators were temporarily impacted and we are working to resolve it."

This issue is very concerning from a security perspective; users need to have trust in the security solution they are using and updates that break things also break this trust, or at least erode it. However, it should be pointed out that the real-time scanning of endpoints wasn't impacted by the update, and users could still, use the custom scanning feature which continued to work as intended.

What should you do now?

The good news is that Microsoft helpline number has already confirmed it has fixed the problem, almost as quickly as it created it, with another update. The fix can be found in a security intelligence update for Windows Defender antivirus. This should automatically update your Windows Defender definitions and resolve the scanning issue. To be sure, however, it is recommended that you check for updates in the Windows Security Virus & Threat Protection screen to trigger a download of the latest version from Microsoft support phone number.