“We’ve heard from many customers who are excited about the value Microsoft Search provides through Bing and the simplicity of deploying that value through Office 365 ProPlus,” said the Office 365 team in a blog post. “With Microsoft Search integrated, Bing becomes a single search engine for users to find what they need – both from inside their organization and the public web.” Microsoft says it heard concerns about how it wanted to roll this “value” out, and as a result, the extension install will be opt-in, rather than opt-out....

Microsoft is testing PayPal support for Skype on Windows 10 on the Insider Program. You’ll need to be running version 14.32.42.0, which is available to Insiders. It is unclear whether Microsoft will roll out this feature in a Skype update or will wait for the next Window 10 release. Considering Skype has its own Insider program, we expect to see PayPal support on Windows 10 to arrive soon. Like on Android and iOS, PayPal on Skype for Windows 10 is available in 22 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand....

Stock images on Office 365 help users to spruce up their documents, mostly PowerPoint presentations. For Microsoft 365 customers, this library includes a large set of royalty-free photos. Microsoft has also included icons, stickers, and other image types in the library. Now, the company is extending to videos and ways for users to create moods in their presentations. This move follows last month’s addition of sketches and illustrations to the library....

Microsoft is one of the major tech brands who have either developed new headquarters or are in the process of doing so. The company is currently overhauling its 500-acre campus in Redmond, Washington. While the work will not be complete until 2022, Microsoft has commissioned Blockworks to build a version in Minecraft. Blockworks is a company that create custom Minecraft builds based on real-world places or buildings. The company has previously worked with the Museum of London, Warner Bros....

While Donald Trump’s response has raised some eyebrows, CEOs of various tech companies have been quick to inform employees of their stance. An internal email from Satya Nadella to Microsoft reads: “This past week and in particular this weekend’s events in Charlottesville have been horrific. What I’ve seen and read has had a profound impact on me and I am sure for many of you as well. In these times, to me, only two things really matter as a leader....

Previously, Intel’s Altera processor was the core chip for Azure through an exclusive contract. According to Bloomberg sources, Microsoft is not ready to officially announce the deal. Xilinx’ co-processors will help Azure datacenters accelerate functionality and relieve load on the main server processor. While Microsoft has chosen Xilinx over Intel, the source says Redmond will continue to work with the company. That was confirmed by a Microsoft spokesperson, who declined to comment on the deal: “There has been no change of sourcing for existing infrastructure and offerings,” according to a Microsoft spokesperson....

This comes a week after the Microsoft Cloud outages first began. Initially, Exchange and Outlook had outages, before Microsoft 365/Office 365 went down for some European and Indian users. Now, a wider range of Microsoft 365 services are suffering problems. Microsoft is still warning users outages could happen, preventing them from accessing their admin controls. Earlier this week, users in the U.S. reported they could not access the admin dashboard....

Fortin points out the company is making a commitment to ensure future Windows 10 builds are quality releases. He admits Windows 10 October 2018 Update has been beset by problems. However, the executive points out this is the first issue since Microsoft started its Windows as a service model. Discussing the decision to pause version 1809 last month, Fortin says “This is the first time in Windows 10’s “Windows as a Service” history that we have taken such an action, and as such it has naturally led to questions about the work we do to test and validate Windows quality before we begin rolling it out broadly....

In a blog posted by Microsoft’s Brian Hall yesterday, the company said: “In only nine months since our launch, we’ve shipped Surface Hubs to over 2,000 customers in 24 markets. The average deal size is approximately 50 units, but we’ve seen orders as large as 1,500 units to a large car manufacturer.” However, the company returned to clarify the number as some of the sales are actually unshipped orders. Microsoft cleared up the situation with a reworded statement: “By the end of 2016, nine months since our launch, we will have shipped Surface Hubs to over 2,000 customers in 24 markets....

Just last week, and after over a month on hiatus, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update was re-released. However, Microsoft is seemingly not out of the proverbial woods yet. As confirmed last week, the company is committing to transparency and quality control on Windows 10. To highlight the fact, the company has already announced fresh issues with version 1809. Specifically, Redmond has revealed a new bug that is preventing the installation of Apple’s iCloud for users running Windows 10 October 2018 Update....

Yes, this is the same new Task Manager column we reported on at the end of last year. Back then, the Architecture tab was known about but had not made it into a Windows 10 20H1 Insider preview. That has now changed with the release of Windows 10 Preview Build 19541. Insiders on that branch can now test the new addition. As the name suggests, the column will highlight the architecture of the processor, such as x64....

The company is now ready to share more, and its demo looks very promising. At the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, Andrew Duan showed off some impressive real-time image quality. Through the use of a test unit, Duan shows a 3D point cloud generated by a linked PC. It shows individual folds in shirts and facial features, all while capturing movement with stability. Importantly, it also removes a major issue with the company’s previous sensor....

SQL Server 2019 brings support for Machine Learning Services and failover clusters. Microsoft says this boosts reliability and makes model generation more efficient. In terms of model training, SQL Server now offers partition-based modelling. With this introduction, users can train multiple small models through partitioned data. Previously, users were limited to training whole models. An ability to train multiple small models means users can have greater granularity by breaking data into individual categories without needing to split data....

Speaking of shipping, reports suggest Microsoft is reading to bring Windows 11 22H2 to RTM (release to manufacturing) this month. Quite how general availability in May means H2 (half 2) I am not sure, but either way, it seems the first full update for Windows 11 is incoming. Focus is a new experience that adds several features to the OS. For example, the ability to turn on Do Not Disturb directly in the Action Center....

C3.ai is a major enterprise software provider the develops artificial intelligence solutions to aid digital transformations. The company creates data models, AI models, and connectors for enterprise customers. C3 AI CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) is a suite of services. It boasts tools to help marketing, customer service, and sales. All three companies will work together in collaboration to deliver: “Sell the industry-specific AI CRM offering through dedicated sales teams to target enterprise accounts across multiple industries globally, as well as through agents and industry partners....

The optimizations have been enabled for 64-bit Windows 10 builds and require version 81.0.389.0 or higher. Microsoft says this will translate to a boost of 13% if you’re going by Speedometer 2.0 tests. “Speedometer measures performance by simulating user interactions in a sample web app across a number of DOM APIs and popular JavaScript frameworks used by top sites, and is generally regarded as a good proxy for real-world performance across a number of different subsystems including the DOM, JavaScript engine, layout, and more,” explained the company....

On Excel for the web, Microsoft has brought the ability to “Check Performance”. With this feature, Microsoft Excel will automatically find problems in formatting inside a project that may be causing performance issues for the app. Users can then apply recommendations for actions that the tool will then use to optimise the workbook. This solution is available from Review > Check Performance. Also on Excel for the web, it is now possible to share parts of a workbook....

This is a sizeable expansion as it nearly triples the amount of markets HoloLens is available in. Customers in 39 separate countries can now get a headset. When discussing HoloLens as a consumer product that is available to customers, it is worth noting that it isn’t. Microsoft has never launched a consumer version of the device. HoloLens units are still the Development Edition or the Commercial Suite. Microsoft delayed the release of the consumer version until 2019....

Windows.old is a file left behind when a new update for Windows 10 is installed. This file essentially keeps a version of the previous installation on your system. It is a handy file because you can go back to a previous install is the new update fails. Deleting the Windows.old folder should be easy enough through the Disk Cleanup tool. Once an update is installed, removing this folder can free up much needed GBs of storage....

As expected, Microsoft Research has developed the facial recognition technology that the app uses to change users’ selfies. In conjunction with the huge image database of Bing, it allows users to transport themselves into fun scenes. The search engine of Face Swap automatically finds faces in pages and shows users the possible results. In addition, the app matches skin tone, head turns, tilts, and lighting conditions. For now, the application is available for Android and you can download it from the Play Store....