Following up on a report that the Win10 Search bar on some machines is suddenly showing “Start a web search” instead of the usual “Type here to search” text, it appears as if Microsoft is updating the Search box without your advice or consent. Check yours and see if you can replicate.
Over the weekend, Howard Goldberg reported a startling change in his Win10 Search bar:
Running two systems side by side, both Win10 x64 1909 18363.628 (all patches, including the ones released this week). On one computer, the search bar has the text, “Type here to search,” which I believe has always been the default text in the box. On the other computer, the search bar now has the text “Start a web search”
I’ve compared the search and Cortana settings on both systems for any differences, and I can find none. The search bar is still finding my local files, etc., the behavior is the same (as far as I can tell), but the text has changed and it’s bugging me.
That sparked a discussion that culminated in a revelation that’s news to me. Apparently Microsoft updates the Search bar without asking for permission. I saw the behavior on my main machine this morning. It’s running Win10 version 1903. After rebooting, the build number for the Search box increased from 2020.02.01.6237928 to 2020.02.02.6237943 (screenshot).
You can see the build number on your own Win10 machine by clicking once inside the Search box, then clicking the three dots in the upper right corner.
I have no idea why or how the build changed. There was no "Check for Updates," no notification that updates had been installed, and the change doesn’t appear in any of the Update history entries (Start > Settings > Update & Security, on the right click View update history).
As you can see from the screenshot, my main machine still says “Type here to search.”
So we’re left with two unsolved mysteries. First, the Search text changes on some 1909 machines to “Start a web search” for no apparent reason. Second, the build number for the Win10 1903 and 1909 Search box changes without any interaction with the machine’s owner.
We’ve already ruled out the announced change in Office 365 ProPlus, which hijacks the Chrome browser’s search engine — none of our test machines use Office 365 ProPlus. It doesn’t look like this month’s “optional, non-security” update for Win10 version 1903 or 1909, KB 4532695, has triggered the change — Goldberg is running it, I’m not. While it’s clear that both texts appear on different machines with version 1909, we have yet to see a 1903 machine with “Start a web search.”
Microsoft’s doing all sorts of funny things these days with Windows Search, some of it documented, some of it clearly not. The recent attempt to fix the long-standing bug in Win10 version 1909 File Explorer search, in last month’s 1909 Cumulative Update, made things marginally better — but it’s still buggy. (In spite of what you may have read, there are no Warnings Issued for Millions of Microsoft Windows 10 Users.)
The bugs appear to stem from Microsoft’s change in File Explorer Search from a Win32 program to a WinRT/UWP program. At least, it’s part of the problem. Could a change in File Explorer Search be giving the Search box multiple personalities? Or is this just an A/B test (as BP has suggested), where Microsoft neglects to tell you if you’re an “A” or a “B”? And why would Microsoft think it’s OK to change something as fundamental as Search without telling anybody? Surely there must be some admins out there who are concerned about a shape-shifting Search box.
Operating in our usual mode of crowdsourcing documentation where Microsoft has provided none, can you help? Do you have a Win10 version 1903 machine (type winver in the Search box and press Enter) that shows “Start a web search”? What’s your Search box version number? Is it changing?
For so long, many of us have struggled to renew our licences for Microsoft Office and have been punished with that pesky error - but now there's a fix. Turns out, you can access it legally and for free online.
You'll need a Microsoft Office account, as reported by PCMag, which is free to use unless you need more than 5GB of space (up to 100GB of space will set you back a reasonable $1.99 per month). Once you're logged in, check out the applications on offer and you'll see some of the usual suspects from the full Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
As you'd expect, these versions have limited functionality compared to their desktop counterparts - you'll have fewer colours to decorate your text and graphs for example - but the important part is they're free and the documents will be available on most devices you log into from.
To create a new Word document, head to the 'Word' application on your Microsoft account landing page. Choose a blank document or from a variety of snazzy templates and voila, you've made your first doc.
Accessing previous documents is a breeze as well as you'll just need to head to OneDrive and all your files should be saved and available from there.
As children, we are told that patience is a virtue, that slow and steady wins the race. But in Silicon Valley, where the spirit of "build fast, break fast" guides companies, being a turtle is a sin. Against this background, Microsoft, the wood giant located in the Pacific Northwest forests, took the financial and technological worlds by surprise at the end of November, briefly surpassing Apple as the most valuable company in the Stock Exchange. New York.
With a market capitalization of $ 812.93 billion, it was the first time in almost a decade that the technology company based in Redmond, Washington, was ahead of its rival in Silicon Valley. Apple, which had become the first company to reach the $ 1 trillion mark earlier this year, was not in second place for long. (It was less than a day). However, the reorganization of the classifications was enough to make everyone wonder: How did Microsoft, the father of Clippy and the Zune, become fashionable enough to dismiss, albeit momentarily, the King of Fidelity?
The history of Microsoft has had more ups and downs than its iconic Windows startup screen. Increasing power in the 1990s, before being hit by the dot-com bubble and a major antitrust case, the company missed the mobile boom of the aughts. Meanwhile, its Bing search engine business was dwarfed by Google, while Apple ate as much in the smart phone market as it did in the PC and social networks defined by Facebook. While many discarded Microsoft as nothing more than that nerdy guy in those old posts of Mac against PC, the last few years of updating have taken Microsoft to a completely different company and culture.
Analysts and investors say that 2018 was the best year that Microsoft has had in a decade. During the past year, Microsoft acquired 15 companies, from cloud computing and games to artificial intelligence and open source. His tablets and laptops have received rave reviews. According to Gartner, Microsoft shipped 602,000 PCs in the third quarter of 2018, compared with 591,000 in the third quarter of 2017, and placed them among the top five suppliers in the US. UU (The fourth place went to Apple, which sent 2.02 million during the same period.) The software, including the Azure cloud and the team's workplace chat, has made great strides, with Spiceworks predicting that Teams will capture 41 percent of the market share by 2020. And somehow, in a year full of obstacles and obstacles for the industry for two of its main competitors, Google and Facebook: Microsoft has remained stable.
"Microsoft is incredibly boring," says Piper Jaffray analyst Alex Zukin. "And that's really a big positive for investors, since they're not dealing with iPhone spikes, social spikes, macro or regulatory backwash, they're not dealing with misconduct judgments, they can stay below the radar because the The trends they are playing are trends that last for decades, they are not a flash in the pan. "
Past and present employees say that the company has undergone a radical transformation of culture and mission. It's no coincidence that, as the fifth month marks the fifth anniversary since CEO Satya Nadella took over from Steve Ballmer's Microsoft, Nadella's focus on empathy, a stark contrast to other technology CEOs who are often They see it as emotionless, contactless or non-profit. -It looks like the driving force behind the company's reversal. That focus on empathy applies to everything from the internal mindset to customer relationships and competition. And, yes, even marketing.
According to Microsoft CMO, Chris Capossela, the company spent last year focusing on its "fanatics" to better understand them in all vertical sectors. And that does not always mean that fans have a consumer mentality, but rather duplicate with existing customers instead of trying to take market share away from Microsoft's competitors. He says the company has spent more time listening to its customers this year than in the last decade. With so many different fan bases to monitor, this approach has led to refinements in multiple products. Microsoft has created an adaptive driver for Xbox players with disabilities, for example, and designed the Surface Go with a smaller form factor to accommodate women who ordered a device that fits in a bag.
"Microsoft Monday" is a weekly column that focuses on everything related to Microsoft. This week "Microsoft Monday" presents news about the Windows Update October 10, 2018, fewer restrictions on device limits for Office 365 Home and Personal subscriptions, the end of the Surface Plus financing program, Skype closing the Highlights feature and much more!
Windows Update October 10, 2018
Last week, Microsoft revealed the name of the next major update of Windows 10, which originally received the code name of Redstone 5. The name is officially the Windows update October 10, 2018.
"With this update, we will bring new features and improvements to the nearly 700 million Windows 10 devices that help people make the most of their time," said Roanne Sones of Microsoft.
Some of the new features that Windows 10 October 2018 Update will include are clipboard synchronization, a dark mode for File Explorer, easier management of screenshots, SwiftKey for Windows 10, "Your Phone" for Android and iPhone, and a feature It uses machine learning to restart your PCs at the best time for updates.
It is likely that Microsoft will complete the development of the Windows 10 update of October 2018 at the end of September and it should be publicly available for download in early October.
End Of Device Limits For Office 365 Home And Personal Subscriptions
Jared Spataro of Microsoft announced three major changes to the Office 365 consumer subscriptions.
Currently, personal subscriptions for Office 365 Home and Office 365 include device installation limits. For example, Home limits subscribers to ten devices in total in five users. And the Personal subscription limits users to just a PC or Mac and a tablet. However, subscribers will be able to install Office on an unlimited number of devices and log in to their accounts on up to five devices at the same time beginning October 2.
The subscription to Office 365 Home allows five people to have licenses for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage for $ 99.99 per year. And as of October 2, Microsoft is increasing the number of licenses in a Home subscription from 5 to 6.
Another change that Microsoft announced is that you can now manage your Office 365 subscription directly in the Microsoft account portal. From that portal, you can manage all your Microsoft subscriptions, redeem Microsoft Rewards points and review other benefits. Previously, Office 365 consumer subscriptions were managed through Office.com/MyAccount.
The Surface Plus financing program ends
Microsoft finalized the Surface Plus financing program on August 31. The Surface Plus financing program was launched about a year ago with the Swedish bank Klarna as a partner. Even though the Surface Plus financing program was eliminated, Microsoft recently introduced Xbox All Access, which is a similar program for the Xbox, Xbox Game Pass and Live Gold consoles.
Microsoft's Surface Plus financing program allowed US customers UU Buy a Surface device as part of a 24% monthly payment plan with an annual percentage rate (APR) of 0%. However, the Surface Plus financing program for companies still seems to be continuous.
Microsoft may be looking to reintroduce the program with a different payment company at some time in the future. For example, Dell Preferred is the financial company behind the Xbox All Access program, so that same partner could return to a Surface Plus program. Or maybe Microsoft can integrate a Surface Plus financing program into the rumored Microsoft Managed Desktop service.
OneDrive For Business And SharePoint To Soon Gain Video And Audio Transcriptions
Microsoft will soon add video and audio transcription to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint for Office 365 subscribers later this year. This is the same artificial intelligence technology that was integrated into Microsoft Stream, an enterprise video-sharing service.
So when you view a video or listen to an audio file, a full transcript will appear in the viewer. The transcription feature will support over 320 file types. And by transcribing video and audio files, files will be easier to find through search.
In the same announcement, Microsoft also announced a new files view will be coming to OneDrive and Office.com homepage, which will recommend relevant files based on the Microsoft Graph.
And Microsoft will soon have the option to easily share relevant content with meeting attendees through an intelligent sharing feature. So if you just presented a PowerPoint presentation, you will be recommended to share it with the other attendees once the meeting ends.
Most likely, Microsoft will reveal a number of new artificial intelligence features and Windows 10 updates at the Ignite conference in Orlando next month.
Skype To Shutdown Highlights Feature
Skype is making a number of changes to its platform to make it simpler again. As Skype expanded upon its functionality, the complexity also increased.
“This past year we explored some design changes and heard from customers that we overcomplicated some of our core scenarios. Calling became harder to execute and Highlights didn’t resonate with a majority of users,”
The Highlights feature was similar to Stories that you may have seen in Snapchat and Instagram. This feature simply allowed users to share a slideshow of ephemeral photos and videos. If you posted on Skype Highlights before, you will be able to download it as backups before the feature shuts down on September 30th. The Capture button for the Skype camera was also removed.
In the process of making Skype easier to
use, the navigation has been improved as there is now an emphasis on
Chats, Calls and Contacts. "Our new navigation model removes
redundant and underused features that create clutter—making it much
easier to find the people you want to talk to and contact them in an
instant. On mobile we are moving to three buttons at the bottom of the
app—Chats, Calls, and Contacts. Removing Highlights and Capture provides
a cleaner and more efficient user interface (UI) that is easy to
navigate while still providing all the functionality Skype customers
want," Skype added.
This updated version of Skype will be applied to version 8.29 for Android and iOS.
Microsoft also made a number of changes for the desktop version of Skype. Chats, Calls and Contacts were moved to the top left of the window. Plus the colors and user interface was tweaked a bit to improve contrast and readability.
Sign-In To Microsoft Account With Apple Watch
The Microsoft Authenticator is an app that makes it easier to access your Microsoft Account easily. Authenticator -- which launched on Android and iOS last year as a way to sign-in to Outlook, Office and OneDrive without a password -- provides an extra layer of security alongside PINs and fingerprint readers. And now you can sign in to your Microsoft Account with your Apple Watch.
When you see a push notification on your Apple Watch, Microsoft Account users simply just select the number that is shown on the sign-in screen. This feature is currently being tested in public preview and it will roll out to the public within the next few weeks.
Xbox Elite Wireless Controller To Be Available In White
Microsoft’s premium Xbox Elite Wireless Controller is known for adapting to your hand size and play style through its configuration abilities. You can swap between metal thumbtacks and D-pads and there are four slots for interchangeable paddles that can be attached or removed without having to use tools.
Last week, Microsoft announced that a white Xbox Elite wireless controller will soon be available. The Verge pointed out that this controller will not have Bluetooth support for connecting to Windows 10 PCs though.
If you are interested in buying one, then it will be available for purchase at Microsoft Stores, GameStop and several other stores for $149.99 starting October 16th.
Suppliers And Contractors Required For Offering Paid Parental Leave
A few years ago, Microsoft set up a policy that required some of its suppliers that it does business within the US to provide employees with paid time off. And now these suppliers will also be required to provide employees who handle its work to have paid parental leave.
“We have long recognized that the health, well-being and diversity of our employees helps Microsoft succeed. That’s why we provide industry-leading benefits for our employees, including comprehensive health and wellness programs for families, paid vacation, paid sick leave and paid time off for new parents,” said Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and General Counsel Dev Stahlkopf.
In the next year, Microsoft will work with U.S. suppliers to implement the new paid parental leave policy. And it will require that suppliers offer employees a minimum of 12 weeks paid parental at up to $1,000 per week. And this applies to parents employed by its suppliers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child. Specifically, this new policy applies to suppliers with over 50 employees and covers supplier employees who perform substantial work for Microsoft.
"Studies show that paid parental leave enriches the lives of families. Women who take paid maternity leave are more likely to be in the workforce a year later and earn more than mothers who do not receive paid time off. Employers who offer paid time off for new mothers experience improved productivity, higher morale and lower turnover rates. And, paid parental leave is not solely a benefit for women," added Stahlkopf. "Data from California’s paid family leave program shows that men take paternity leave at twice the rate and for longer periods of time when the leave is paid. This increased bonding and time spent caring for young children is correlated with positive outcomes such as higher test scores for these children. Further, when men and women have the opportunity to take paid leave, it can help counteract gender caregiving stereotypes, neutralize stigmas and promote equity in the home and office."
One of the highlights of the change from Microsoft to Windows as a service (WaaS) with Windows 10 is that it now includes updates to more frequent functions. Unfortunately, these updates often come with quite long installation times, which can be harmful if you need to get back to work. Fortunately, Microsoft seems to be pushing to find ways to reduce the time required to install updates in the future.
Responding to a query on Twitter, Windows Insider director Doña Sarkar said she is pushing the development team to reduce the update time.
The update process is an area in which Microsoft has already been working to make it more convenient for a while. In 2016, Microsoft introduced the unified update platform as a way to reduce download sizes with specific updates. That movement ended up reducing discharge sizes by around 35 percent. Last week, Microsoft revealed that it is working on new improvements with a new system that will allow it to resume downloading Windows updates from where it left off if its connection is cut off.
In terms of momentum to accelerate the update period, Sarkar does not provide any specific information. However, any reduction would be welcomed by Windows 10 users across the board.
Office Insiders is testing for the first time the AI features that Microsoft recently revealed for Office 365.
Microsoft began implementing a new Insider Fast ring update for Office 2016 for Windows. And although there is not a ton of changes included, the update provides the first glimpse of an Excel function for machine learning that Microsoft joked at a recent event focused on AI.
The feature, called "Insights", is based on machine learning to help find and highlight patterns. This can help identify trends, outliers, and other "useful visualizations," says Microsoft. Excel has also picked up the ability to deselect cells within a selected range. And outside of Excel, Outlook will now load group conversations even faster, says Microsoft. There are no important new features included with this compilation for PowerPoint or Word.
According to Microsoft, Excel Insights will be gradually extended to Office 365 subscribers enrolled in the Insider Fast ring. That means that not everyone will see the function immediately, but it should be open to more people in the coming weeks.
Q. Do you need a paid subscription to use the Microsoft Office mobile applications? I thought they were free for Android and iOS devices.
A. The ability to use Microsoft Office mobile applications without having to pay a subscription fee depends on the device you are using and what you want to do with the programs. The free touchscreen editions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint allow you to perform basic tasks (such as creating a file and entering text into it) on most smaller tablets and phones. You must register to obtain a free Microsoft account to use Microsoft Office Mobile for Android, or the iOS versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The files are stored on the Microsoft OneDrive cloud server.
However, if you have an iPad Pro, you will get a full version of the software for a free 30-day trial. Once the test is complete, you must subscribe to one of Microsoft Office 365 subscription plans. Prices start at $ 6.99 per month.
Signing up for an Office 365 subscription allows you to use the most advanced features of Office mobile applications, such as the change tracking tool in Microsoft Word. Credit The New York Times
If you are working with the free versions of the applications and want to unlock the rest of the editing functions on an Android or iOS device, you must also register to obtain an Office 365 subscription. Once you convert to a paid plan, you can do things like tracking and reviewing the changes made to the documents, insert page and section breaks, use more colors, create Excel data maps and take advantage of all the tools included in the Office Mobile suite. A subscription for home or personal use includes other benefits, such as a terabyte of OneDrive file storage, desktop applications, and technical support.
If the price is too high for you, Apple's office applications iWork, Google Docs, Dropbox Paper and Zoho are among the free or low-cost alternatives.
