Windows Weekly (Audio)

Microsoft 365 for consumers is here Microsoft has made the shift from Office 365 Personal/Home to Microsoft 365 Personal/Family What's changed? (Just the brand) What about all those new features that Microsoft promised? What about Teams? There's a lot of confusion about this one. Mo' Microsoft 365 Microsoft integrates Yammer into Teams. Is this the beginning of the end of Yammer? Skype gets custom background images Surface It looks like a virtual launch for Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3. And probably a new Dock and those Earbuds we all forgot about. Latest rumor: A bigger screen for Surface Go 2.Windows 10 Microsoft finally moves Windows 10 version 2004 into Release Preview. No tea leaves are needed: This is the beginning of the end. Or the end of the beginning. New Fast and Slow ring builds today too Xbox New Xbox dashboard launches quietly, with no announcement Microsoft trademark application reveals the new X Series logo Tips and picks Tip of the week: You don't necessarily have to pay for Microsoft 365. Here's what you get for free. App pick of the week: New web browsers. Vivaldi gets serious about tracking and ads. Opera adds Instagram integration Plus: Curtains for Windows 10 brings back the XP look and feel, more Plus: Fornite is finally in the Google Play Store Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft Research podcast. One of the best podcast series at Microsoft these days is the Microsoft Research podcast. The breadth of the topics covered is fantastic. They also offer some excellent explanations of existing cutting-edge tech. (And they have full transcripts online, too.) Check it out: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/category/podcast/ Codename pick of the week: Project Moca. Remember that Outlook Spaces feature that the Walking Cat unearthed a while back. Turns out, it's still under development and now goes by the "Project Moca" codename. (Thanks to one of our fans from Portland, Oregon, for the codename tipoff.) Beer pick of the week: Other Half All Together IPA. Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn has open-sourced a beer recipe, hoping other brewers will make versions of their own. This solid New England IPA called All Together, is meant as a benefit project for the hospitality industry workers who've been affected by COVID-19. All the proceeds are going to the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation. Keep an eye out for your local breweries' All Together releases. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: expressvpn.com/windows ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether

Neo, Duo, Windows 10X Delayed Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/668 Sponsor: LastPass.com/twit

Edge is #2!!!, MS Cancels all Live Events Until July, 2021 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/667 Sponsor: barracuda.com/windows

Microsoft Virtualizes Ignite, Cloud vs Covid-19 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/666 Sponsor: Wasabi.com offer code WINDOWS

Windows 10 on Pause, xCloud, Doom 64 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/665 Sponsors: FreshBooks.com/windows canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT expressvpn.com/windows

Build Canceled, Xbox Series X Event Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/664 Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/windows LastPass.com/twit Melissa.com/twit

Windows 10X Microsoft updates Windows 10X emulator for dual-screen devices What's new and what's improved? Related: Does Windows 10X solve the Chromebook problem? MJF: Not really until 10X comes to cheap(er) clamshell laptops Windows 10 First Windows Insider build in two weeks brings talk of change, but not much actual change Still no GA info on Windows 10 2004 COVID-19 Weekly After pushing employees to work from home, now there are two Microsoft employees that have been diagnosed Related: Microsoft and Google will both host virtual events to make up for canceled physical events Big Microsoft GDC announcement next week live on Windows Weekly at 11:40am PDT - We have Richard Campbell here as a guest, with some interesting info about how COVID-19 has impacted work travel Plus: The history of .NET Security, security security New 'wormable' SMB vulnerability disclosed (accidentally) as part of Patch Tuesday. No info on when Microsoft plans to patch it Meanwhile, in the good news department: Microsoft's coordinated takedown of Necurs, one of the largest known spam and malware botnets Xbox Ori and the Will of the Wisps launches ... ... and Microsoft lowers the price of Xbox One X to $399 Tips and picks Tip of the week: Check out Windows 10X. You no longer need to have a Fast ring Windows Insider build to use the emulator. But there is one important requirement. App pick of the week: Call of Duty: Warzone. Call of Duty: Warzone is here! And it's free! Enterprise pick of the week: Cosmos DB gets a free tier! Microsoft adds a free tier (free as in forever) for its Cosmos DB NoSQL cloud database. Enterprise pick No. 2: About that major Azure US East outage. Is it still a cloud outage if almost no one complains publicly? Where is the outrage, cloud citizens? Beer pick of the week: O'Fallon Brewery Barrels Salted Pretzel. This amber was brewed with toasted malt and Himalayan salt giving you a toasted pretzel flavor. We got to have a sample of this during our beer tasting at WWT in Saint Louis. It was really tasty and really did taste like a pretzel. Only 5% ABV, too, so you can have more than one with your tofudog. https://untappd.com/b/o-fallon-brewery-barrels-salted-pretzel/2977506 Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Guest: Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsor: twit.cachefly.com

Coronavirus Cancellations, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Hosts: Mikah Sargent, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/662 Sponsor: Melissa.com/twit

Surface Duo Peek, Azure Sphere Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/661 Sponsors: WWT.COM/TWIT FreshBooks.com/windows

CRACKGATE Uh-oh, Microsoft has another Surface reliability issue on its hands. Hopefully, this one is not an endemic hardware problem like Surfacegate was in 2016. Related: Microsoft set to unveil Surface Book 3, Surface Go 2 in the Spring. Microsoft Edge Microsoft updates its roadmap for Edge, giving us a nice look at what to expect---and when---in 2020. Extension sync is happening this month, starting in Canary Related: A little lesson in tracking protection. Windows 10 Windows 10 version 2004 should arrive soon. Anything worth talking about? Your Phone is getting RCS Messaging support Break out the Patch Tuesday cocktails: Microsoft's latest patches wreaking havoc for some users One is hiding users' profiles and data Another connected to UEFI has been pulled by Microsoft Office/Microsoft 365 Microsoft is bringing a new Spaces feature to Outlook this year. Related: Microsoft: Over 25 percent of Office 365 licenses now sold through Microsoft 365 Mo' Microsoft AWS wins one in court, Microsoft must pause work on JEDI Xbox Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary begins public testing on the PC! Microsoft announces the remaining new Game Pass games for February Tips and picks Tip of the week: Discover the incredible Microsoft learning resources on EdX. EdX.org hosts an amazing array of free online courses for Microsoft products, services, and technologies. App pick of the week: Office for Android and iOS. It's available for everyone now on both platforms. Why is there a new notes experience? Enterprise pick of the week: More Dynamics 365 apps are coming. Woohoo! Dynamics fans, rejoice (or lament): Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Dynamics 365 Finance Insights are now on the Dynamics 365 roadmap. Codename pick of the week: Union. The new Office mobile app for iOS and Android had a fitting codename: Union. It's a mashup – or a "union," one could say -- of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Beer pick of the week: Aslin Master of Oranges. Not all DIPAs are created equal. Some are not too hoppy, not too sweet and smell/taste of nicely bitter orange peel. Meet Aslin's "Master of Oranges." Brewed by Aslin Brewing in Herndon, Va. (a tribute to the JEDI contract!) Hosts: Mikah Sargent, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: LastPass.com/twit expressvpn.com/windows Melissa.com/twit

MWC 2020 cancelled, Windows 10X Revealed Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/659 Sponsors: twit.cachefly.com ZipRecruiter.com/windows

This Week's Stories: Panos Is Wumped (Windows plus Pumped) Panos is running a new combined Windows and Devices team. JoeB is going to OXO What will PC OEMs do? Key takeaway: This is good for Windows and for Microsoft Related: More reorg news of the day. Teper is going to run Teams. And Jeff Weiner is out as CEO of LinkedIn. Microsoft controversies of the week! #1 Surface Hub 2X: What's happening After a leak claimed that Microsoft was delaying or even canceling Surface Hub 2X, Microsoft revised its plans (again, remember this is the second major delay/issue). What the heck is going on with Surface? #2 Microsoft Store/UWP on the decline Another nail in the coffin: Microsoft is shutting down the ad-based monetization of UWP apps in the Store. But which coffin? This probably says more about Microsoft Store than UWP. #3 BingJacked: The sequel? Windows Search is down for many this morning. It's back now (but you probably need a reboot or 3)Microsoft at MWC Microsoft will show off some stuff at MWC, but nothing like last year. Looks like Paul is staying home.Microsoft earnings We're a week late and a dollar short, but let's talk about Microsoft's earnings. Microsoft earned $11.6 billion on revenues of $36.9 billion in the quarter ending December 31. Windows had a larger than expected contribution Paul's business-by-business analysis Xbox There's a new System Update (2002, of course) coming in February Microsoft launches a new Xbox Bounty Program Picks of the Week Tip of the week: Give Game Pass for PC a shot App pick of the week: Outlook ... on mobile, not the PC Enterprise pick of the week: System Center 2019 Update Rollup 1 is out Codename pick of the week: Aruba Beer pick of the week: Allagash Tripel Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsor: Melissa.com/twit

Thinking more about Surface Neo and Duo Last week, Microsoft released the SDK and emulator for the Android-based Duo; ones for Neo coming soon The Duo SDK for Mac developers also is now available (as of this week) - So let's think ahead about why Microsoft is calling these devices "a new category" Who is the intended audience? It's not creatives (who were big targets of the Surface tablets/PCs) Are these going to be positioned as PCs? Tablets? Is Apple still a primary competitive target for these devices? What kinds of software and services will be preloaded? What are the hardware, M365/O365 and Edge/MSN/Bing teams contributing? (they supposedly develop these new devices together) New launcher, unified search, stuff like Collections? Will developers find these dual-screen devices interesting enough to target? Or not till the UI comes to "regular" PCs? Will Neo and Duo attract users who don't see a need for a PC anymore? Does MS think they could be users' sole (or maybe secondary) devices? Thinking more about search Last week, Microsoft made a bad move: Deciding to hijack the Chrome browsers of O365 ProPlus users and switch their search engine to Bing So far, Microsoft has not claimed "based on user feedback" that they're undoing this move The real reason for this: Microsoft is starting to push Bing as an Intranet search engine (see MS Search in Bing; Project Cortex, the new Office app experience) Implications of this - Microsoft will lose the moral high-ground if it doesn't do the right thing Windows 10 Windows version 1909 usage share hits 15 percent New Insider build, no more Insider PWA app New CU fixes at least some File Explorer problems for 1903/1909 users Related: Microsoft to bring Edge tab management feature to Chrome Semi-related: A major USB-C bug has hit virtually all modern ThinkPads. Not really related, but still worth a mention: Premium Outlook.com users are losing personalized email addresses at end of Feb. (unless you subscribe to O365) Windows 7! FSF wants Microsoft to open-source Windows. They're nuts. And yet... Microsoft has one more security update coming for Windows 7 XboxNew Games with Gold for FebruaryTips and picks Tip of the week: Help me pick the next programming project .NETpad (Visual Basic/Windows Forms/.NET Framework) is winding down, so the next one will be a C#/WPF/.NET Framework/Core project. And I need some ideas. App pick of the week: Surface Duo Emulator Enterprise pick of the week: Dynamics 365 Wave 1 2020 Enterprise pick No. 2: Beware the LDAP signing apocalypse in March Beer pick of the week: Perennial Abraxas Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT FreshBooks.com/windows

Microsoft 2020 Predictions Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/656 Sponsors: expressvpn.com/windows Melissa.com/twit LastPass.com/twit

Windows 7 support ends - Yesterday, Microsoft released the "final" updates for Windows 7 for most people (But not that update for the NSA-reported crypto bug that was for Win 10 and Win Server, interestingly) - Today, Windows 7 will begin displaying a full-screen nag to upgrade to Windows 10 - Microsoft Edge might be supported on Windows 7 for at least 18 months, and Microsoft Security Essentials will keep working for some indeterminate time period. Google Chrome will also be supported for 18+ months. The (new) Microsoft Edge era begins - Microsoft launches its (curiously incomplete) new web browser on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, and Mac - Here's how you can get it now (individuals and businesses) Windows 10 - Here's our first peek at the new features coming to Windows 10 in late 2020 (Or later. Or never.) - Windows 10 version 2004 isn't even out yet, but it's getting major updates already. In the Slow ring only. Because of the confusing way the Insider program works now. - Related: The PC market grew 1.9 percent in 2019, the first annual growth in 8 years. What will 2020 look like? - Related: Microsoft is phasing out its Microsoft Stores for Business and Education Mo' Microsoft - Walkie-Talkie voice calls, more coming to Teams - Not news per se, but a new report details the extent to which Microsoft contractors violated Skype users' privacy - Why didn't Microsoft bid more to get Bing on Android in the EU? Xbox/games - Microsoft continues its "no exclusives" strategy. And it's smart. - Epic Game Store has 108 million customers, will give away more games all throughout 2020 Tips and picks - Tip of the week: Yes, you can run legacy Edge and new Edge side-by-side. Here's how. (But seriously. Why?) - Also: Reminder that Batman: The Telltale Series and LEGO Star Wars II are now available via Games with Gold - App pick of the week: Microsoft Launcher Preview - Enterprise pick of the week: Power Platform warning for IT admins - Codename pick of the week: Vader - Beer pick of the week: Athletic Brewing Upside Down Golden Ale Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: getguru.com/windows twit.cachefly.com