Microsoft Support & Discussions
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ASUS announces new Windows 10 PCs
by Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper- 0 replies
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Ahead of Computex 2016, ASUS announced new Windows 10 PCs. These devices offer a wide variety Windows 10 features to take advantage of — each PC comes with great features like Cortana, your personal digital assistant, as well as the ability to sign into the device with Windows Hello, by way of a built-in fingerprint reader or built-in camera. They’re incredibly thin and light, making them perfect for working from anywhere. Here are some more details on the new PCs ASUS announced today. ASUS ZenBook 3 Click to view slideshow. At less than half an inch thin, this is the thinnest new premium ASUS ZenBook. ZenBook 3 will be available in three exclusive colors — Royal B…
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Microsoft wants you to upgrade to Windows 10. Like, a lot. So much so that if you leave your PC to its own devices for too long, you might come back and find that Cortana has settled in and made itself at home. If you want to hang on your Windows 7 or 8 install without having to live in fear of an unexpected update (like this unfortunate TV weather crew), or if you want to prevent Windows 10 from spying on practically everything you do, we've put together the definitive guide. There's a couple options, but the best one is very simple: download a tiny utility called Never 10. It's a utility that changes your computer's settings to prevent operating system upgrades.…
Last reply by allheart55 Cindy E, -
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Facebook and Microsoft announced today their plans to lay a massive data cable in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Construction will begin August 2016 and expected to finish in October 2017. Dubbed "MAREA", Spanish for "tide", the cable will reach over 6,600 kilometers of ocean and will be capable of providing up to 160 terabits per second of bandwidth. It will be the highest capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic, says Microsoft. The cable will span from Virginia, a major hub for data centers, to Bilbao, Spain. The cable also builds a more efficient path to Africa, the Middle East, and even Asia. Microsoft says MAREA will bring "lower costs and easier eq…
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What do you get when you cross a full-rate ADSL 2/2+ modem, a 4-port switch and a 300 Mbps wireless-N router? A very happy home internet user and a very angry ISP, that's what. We've told you a number of time how internet service providers add bogus modem rental fees to your bill each month, and we explained how to eliminate those fees. All you have to do is purchase your own compatible modem and call up your ISP, then they have to help you set it up. Once that's done, you can return your ISP's old modem and knock anywhere from $96 to $120 off the annual cost of home internet service. Typically when we discuss this important topic, we highlight cable modems that wor…
Last reply by allheart55 Cindy E, -
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Windows Store Weekly: new titles to check out this week
by Guest Elana Pidgeon- 0 replies
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Today’s roundup of what’s new in the Windows Store kicks off with a collection to get you ready for the summer months ahead, great sales on games, and the premiere of a new show! Apps Ready, Set, Summer Think you’re ready for summer? We’re here to make sure, with the Ready, Set, Summer Collection in the Windows Store. Whether you’re looking for awesome games for passing the time, cool apps to help you do more, or great entertainment, we’re geared up for the season so you can be, too. Many of these titles are free and a number are on sale right now, so check out the entire Collection in the Windows Store today. Games Age of Empires: Castle Siege – IA…
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Police Paperwork Mistake Screws Over Victim Of Car Theft & Man Who Unwittingly Bought Stolen Vehicle
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Here’s a case where no one really wins. Not the woman whose truck was stolen and had to go out-of-pocket to replace it, and certainly not the guy who bought the truck but had to surrender it after learning it had been stolen five years earlier… and all because someone at the police department filled in the wrong box on some paperwork. NBC Los Angeles has the bizarre saga of the Bakersfield-area woman, who reported her truck stolen back in 2011, when it was still relatively new. Filing that police report should have prevented the vehicle from being resold, but whoever wrote up the paperwork put the truck’s title number in the field where they should have entered its …
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The point of a password is to keep your accounts secure. A bad password, though, doesn’t do that very well. And despite decades’ worth of repeated warnings not to use the same terrible passwords, millions of people still regularly do, even when a system tries to require better ones. So Microsoft, in the name of customer protection, has finally had enough and is just going to start banning the really crappy ones altogether. Basically, Microsoft is putting a tool in place for anyone using its login systems that has a check against the worst passwords list and bans new entries from matching them. In the blog post, a Microsoft expert explains that across all their pro…
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Acer unveils new Windows 10 PCs ideal for students, businesses and families
by Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper- 0 replies
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Ahead of Computex 2016, Acer unveiled a new portfolio of Windows 10 PCs ideal for students, families and business professionals, all available at extremely affordable prices beginning at just $199. Each of these PCs offers the best of Windows 10, with built-in fingerprint readers you can conveniently and securely sign into your device with Windows Hello, you can draw and markup webpages in Microsoft Edge and enjoy having your own personal digital assistant in Cortana. Let’s take a look at these new devices that were announced today: Acer Switch V 10 Click to view slideshow. The Switch V 10 2-in-1 laptop powered by Windows 10 is a great choice for students …
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Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14352
by Guest Gabe Aul- 0 replies
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Hi everyone, Today we are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14352 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. Here’s what’s new in Build 14352 Cortana Improvements Cortana, Your Personal DJ: In addition to playing songs via your local files and OneDrive, you also now have the ability to play any song from the entire Groove Music Catalog using Cortana. If you have a Groove Music Pass, just ask Cortana to play your favorite artist, genre, playlist or song. This also works with Cortana on your Lock screen. “Hey Cortana, play <song name>” “Hey Cortana, play <artist>” “Hey Cortana, play my <Groove playlist name>” “Hey Cortana, pause” …
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Moving forward with PowerShell and Windows Server 2016
by Guest Microsoft Windows Server- 0 replies
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This post was authored by Keith Bankston, Senior Program Manager, Windows Server. Jeffrey Snover talked about the various eras for Windows Server in his recent blog titled, Ten reasons you’ll love Windows Server 2016 #10: Nano Server, adding that Windows Server 2016 represents the next era of Windows Server computing by providing numerous new features to deploy a strong cloud server. PowerShell has evolved to support and automate Windows Server in each of these eras. The Windows Server cloud era provides new concepts and capabilities to bring customers to the next level of computing with a strong platform of technologies, leveraging and building upon earlier concept…
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Securing privileged access: Preventing and detecting attacks
by Guest Microsoft Windows Server- 0 replies
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This post was authored by Nir Ben Zvi, Principal Program Manager, Windows Server. Introduction: Why is it important to secure privileged access? The threat environment has continued to reinforce that identity is a primary security boundary. When examining major cyber-attacks that occurred over the last several years, one can notice a recurring common inflection point: Attackers focus on taking control over the identity systems. No matter what environment or operating systems you are using, your success in protecting and detecting attacks depends on how well you secure and monitor your privileged identities. In this blog we will cover an actionable recommendatio…
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Windows Store celebrates summer promotion
by Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper- 0 replies
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Summer is almost here. To help people get ready to have fun, today we are announcing the Ready, Set, Summer Collection, a promotion which is live in the Windows Store now and runs through June 6th. As part of the collection, we are offering more than a hundred deals on our most popular games, music, movies and TV shows, and of course top-rated apps. Summer is a busy time of the year – kids are out of school, music festivals dominate weekend calendars, and many of us head out to explore new destinations. To help you get the most out of your summer, here are some recommendations from our offerings: Get your bags packed! Summer travel app necessities include: …
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One might think that if a company wants to have a conversation with their customers, once they’ve got them on the phone they’d stay on the line long enough to actually talk to them. But that wasn’t the case for one Consumerist reader, who said a Verizon rep hung up on him when informed that the customer would be recording their call. Consumerist reader Olivier wrote on Twitter about a recent experience he had with a Verizon Wireless representative who called him up — for what reason, we may never know — and told him the conversation they were about to have would (or could be) recorded for quality assurance and/or training purposes. “The breezy @verizon guy then asks…
Last reply by allheart55 Cindy E, -
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HP announces new portfolio of Windows 10 gaming PCs
by Guest Mollie Ruiz-Hopper- 0 replies
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HP Inc. announced their new OMEN by HP gaming portfolio powered by Windows 10, and engineered exclusively for people who love to game to deliver the power and performance needed to dominate the competition. With features like Full HD and 4K IPS display options, powerful NVIDIA GTX graphics up to 965M and up to 6th Generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processors gamers are equipped to dominate any challenge. As many of you know, with Windows 10, gamers have access to great Windows 10 features like the Xbox app and the Windows Store to purchase and play their favorite games. This wave of OMEN by HP gaming PCs feature a family of four devices with a bold new look offeri…
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No one likes to pay more for something than they have to. For that reason, several retailers offer pricing guarantees that allow customers to receive refunds if the cost of an item changes within a certain amount of time. Amazon is no longer one of the companies offering this protection. TechCrunch reports that Amazon quietly changed its price protection policy to exclude all products except for televisions. Previously, the company’s policy allowed customers to request a refund if the price of a purchase dropped within seven days. The policy change took effect in early May, but the company continued to honor price-matching requests for a period of time, TechCrun…
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As we have written about Windows 10 and the free upgrade offer that expires this summer we have talked about the expected spike of upgrades that should occur over the next two months as users on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems jump in to get their free entitlement to the new operating system. Of course, there is some discussions happening out there on sites and social media about heavy handed methods being used by Microsoft to get users moved over to Windows 10 with the Get Windows 10 app. From my perspective, in my own circles and Windows 7/8.1 virtual machines I test with, I am yet to see or hear about unexpected/unwanted upgrades. Where there is smoke there is fire so som…
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Most people fear losing social security numbers in ransomware attacks, which proves they don't know what ransomware is A Kaspersky study of over 5,000 users in Canada and the US reveals that even if ransomware is today's most dangerous and prevalent malware infection, a lot of regular users have no clue what it is and what it does. The study shows that while almost all security experts are sweating only by thinking of getting infected with ransomware even by accident, almost half of the surveyed users have no clue what it is, or that they can lose critical data after such infections. Kaspersky says that users were more scared about other malware categories such a…
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Copy-pasting commands into your terminal allows attackers to append, automatically execute and then hide malicious code It has been possible for a long time for developers to use CSS to append malicious content to the clipboard without a user noticing and thus fool them into executing unwanted terminal commands. This type of attack is known as clipboard hijacking, and in most scenarios, it is useless, except when the user copies something inside their terminal. Security researcher Dylan Ayrey published last week a new version of this attack, which uses only JavaScript as the attack medium, not CSS. Called Pastejacking, his proof-of-concept attack works the…
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DMA Locker now comes with support for a C&C server, more complex encryption process, and exploit kit distribution Malwarebytes security researcher Hasherezade has dissected the most recent version of the DMA Locker ransomware, which she claims made important strides in improving quality overall and getting ready for a massive distribution campaign. The first version of DMA Locker appeared this past January. Technically, the ransomware was a joke, coming with hilarious flaws such as the decryption key being hardcoded in the ransomware binary, and the ransomware working as a decrypter. Researchers had no problem crafting a decrypter that recovered user fi…
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Looking Forward to COMPUTEX 2016
by Guest Nick Parker- 0 replies
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Next week, I look forward to joining over 100,000 industry partners from over 29 countries at COMPUTEX 2016 in Taipei. The partner ecosystem is critical to our success and we continue to work hard with our hardware partners to create opportunities, drive innovation, and deliver incredible Windows devices to the world. On June 1st, I will take the stage to discuss how Microsoft is enabling modern Windows devices and experiences. I look forward to sharing how Windows 10 technologies like Windows Hello, Windows Ink, Cortana and more are coming to life in all new and exciting ways on a broad range of devices. And, how Microsoft productivity apps and cloud services provide …
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Security researchers at Bleeping Computer are quick to discover emerging and revenant threats, and this time the team broke the alarm to a new variant of the Shopperz adware, thanks to the tipster in the name of Djordje Lukic. Unlike in the past, the updated Shopperz adware now leverages a rootkit to ward off any possibility of getting detected and removed with the use of advanced anti-virus tools. Since it now takes refuge under a rootkit, the adware has the capability to conceal its real identity from the view of the users or the operating system of the machine that is being infected. How does it do that? Well, when the machine’s operating system sends a req…
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Earlier today, we heard that THINX customers were ticked off to find the company had suddenly disabled all the $10 gift codes they’d collected as part of a referral program. When we reached out to THINX for a comment on their referral program and any changes to it, the company said it had to disable all gift card codes after a few bad apples took advantage of the system. The company told Consumerist in an emailed response that THINX saw “thousands of fraudulent orders created by ‘customers’ who were severely abusing the referral program as it was structured.” According to THINX, those customers created fake bots and scripts that generated new email addresses, allowi…
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Windows Store Weekly: top new titles to check out this weekend
by Guest Elana Pidgeon- 0 replies
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Here’s a roundup of what’s new in the Windows Store this week, including great sales on games, a thrilling season finale, and a new album! Games Minecraft: Pocket and Windows 10 Beta Editions – Buy the new Biome Settlers Skin Pack for $1.99 Nether and Mooshroom players – assemble! Now you can dress like a Nether rack caught on fire – or a Mooshroom glutton. The team took inspiration from the resources, mobs, and ways to play in the Nether and Mooshroom biomes to create this pack of seed-inspired skins. The second Biome Settlers skin pack is now available on Minecraft: Pocket Edition or Minecraft: Windows 10 Beta Edition. King of Thieves – 30% off Starter…
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Google has a solution to help mitigate injuries in the event a pedestrian and a self-driving car collide: human flypaper. In a patent issued this week, the search giant describes a "system for protecting a colliding object from a secondary impact, after an initial impact with a vehicle." The patent calls for a giant sticker to be placed on the front end of a vehicle, with a special coating over the layer that is only broken when something collides with the vehicle, exposing the adhesive and helping the colliding object to remain on the vehicle. The idea is to prevent a pedestrian from being thrown after the impact and potentially sustaining even more injuries…
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From Good Housekeeping You probably have a wallet full of credit cards with chips at this point. Banks have been rolling them out like crazy and they're supposed to be safer - as long as you use them the right way, that is. That's why the fact that some retailers - including Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples, Chick-fil-A, and Panera Bread - don't have chip card readers up and running at all of their locations is a big concern. You see, if you swipe a chip card instead of inserting it into slot, the merchant is responsible for covering any fraudulent charges - not the bank. And some retailers aren't in a financial position to cover major security breaches, like that cor…
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