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Xbox Live will soon allow custom profile pics

March 21, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft plans to allow Xbox One gamers to upload and set custom gamerpics in the near future, the company’s Major Nelson announced today via a new post on his official blog. No longer will users be limited to an avatar or game-related snapshot. That’s among the changes and new features outlined in a blog post from Major Nelson. Users will be able to choose a custom gamer pic directly from the console, a Windows 10 PC, or a smartphone, so they have plenty of avenues for picking the image you…

Microsoft is putting OneDrive ads in Windows 10’s File Explorer

March 16, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft made a lot of changes in Windows 10 that helped it put the mistakes of Windows 8 in the rear view mirror. Not all of Microsoft’s ideas are good, though. The company has shown a tendency to get a little too casual with how it promotes its services within Windows. Users have reported seeing ads to sign up for OneDrive, — Microsoft’s cloud storage service — at the top of the Quick Access screen that comes up when you open a new File Explorer window. Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage…

Microsoft steps up media campaign urging girls to pursue STEM careers

March 9, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

For the next phase of its “Make What’s Next” campaign, which encourages girls to enter tech and science fields, Microsoft is launching a spot that shows girls the steps they have to take to make their STEM goals a reality. The campaign was introduced last year and highlighted today with a video of young girls talking about they would do change the world. The girls who appear to be tweens and teens are resolute and confidant about the challenges they want to tackle: climate change, making sure there’s enough water…

Microsoft adds Mixed Reality demo to Windows 10

March 6, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft previously let us know that a range of its OEM partners with familiar names from the PC world would be building headsets that offer mixed reality experiences on Windows 10 hardware. The tech giant launched its Windows 10 Insider Build 15048, which allows users to access the Windows Mixed Reality Portal. Developer Mode must be enabled in order to access the portal. Once opened, the program will compare your hardware with the required system specifications for Windows Mixed Reality. Users can choose to set up a development kit headset or…

Microsoft will soon block the installing of desktop apps on windows 10

March 1, 2017March 3, 2017

Microsoft is currently testing a new functionality in Windows 10 that prevents you from installing any desktop apps – unless they come from the official store. The latest Windows Insider preview build of Windows 10 includes options to only allow apps from the Windows Store, but the feature appears to be set as allowing apps from anywhere to install by default. It could be a useful feature to enable on a family PC to prevent rogue desktop apps from being installed. MSPoweruser reports the feature will notify users with a warning…

Google leaks Microsoft’s Internet Explorer bug

March 1, 2017March 3, 2017

Google has disclosed a still-active vulnerability in the Edge and Internet explorer browsers that Microsoft apparently ignored for more than three months. The Internet explorer bug was reported to Microsoft by a Google engineer and given 90 days to eliminate the error. The flaw was leaked as Microsoft failed to comply with the appointed timeframe. The flaw fundamentally allows ill-intended individuals to build websites that cause the browsers to spontaneously crash and to take control of your browser in certain cases, BBC reports. The flaw has to do with the way…

Apple expands in Microsoft’s backyard

February 24, 2017March 3, 2017

Apple is growing its team in Seattle by creating a new hub for artificial intelligence research reports CNBC. Apple’s expansion will also bolster a relationship with researchers at the University of Washington, which on Thursday announced a $1 million endowment named after Carlos Guestrin, a member of the machine learning team at firm. In a statement, Guestrin noted the “amazing talent” that comes out of the university — who have plenty of options, with Amazon and Microsoft headquartered nearby. Luring top artificial intelligence researchers to big companies has become so…

Microsoft Outgrows the Cloud Competition

February 17, 2017March 3, 2017 Staff Writer

As security continues to improve and enterprises increasingly move from on-premise data centers and infrastructure to the cloud, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are positioned to soak up the largest shares of the unfolding market. A report from IDC estimates that public cloud spending will increase from $70 billion in 2015 to $140.1 billion in 2019 that’s a lot of potential business up for grabs for service providers. Amazon currently has a big lead in the space thanks to its multi-year head start, but Microsoft’s Azure offers comparable service and is…

Microsoft celebrates 20 years of Visual Studio

February 10, 2017March 3, 2017

Microsoft announced that it’s celebrating 20 years of Visual Studio, and in doing so, introduced a launch date for Visual Studio 2017, which will be available on March 7 Neowin reports. According to the Neowin, Visual Studio 97 was the first version of the IDE, and it launched in, you guessed it, 1997. Back then, it was a suite of applications, such as Visual Basic 5.0, Visual C++ 5.0, and more. It was followed by Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, which included a similar suite, and then .NET was launched. Visual…