microsoft

Windows 10 will officially require more memory to run on many computers this summer. It's only a minor change but is the first time the official specifications for Windows have significantly increased in the past seven years. The biggest of the ... changes is the minimum memory specification for 32-bit computers, which is doubling from 1GB to 2GB. The specification for 64-bit machines was already 2GB and will remain unchanged. The change doesn't mean machines with 1GB of RAM will stop working. Instead, it means computer manufacturers will now have to include at least 2GB of RAM to be ... (view more)

Microsoft has detailed the intricate and carefully crafted attack techniques of a longstanding group of online spies. They include taking advantage of a now-retired Windows feature for easier updates. Thankfully for home users, the attacks from the ... group Microsoft dubs "Platinum" have been highly targeted at government, defense, communications and intelligence agencies and organizations. That's promoted speculation a government may be behind the attacks. The details come in a report by Microsoft's Windows Defender Advanced Threat Hunting. It notes that while some attacks are ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled a couple of changes to improve Windows 10: smartphone owners will be able to see notifications on their computer screen, while many Chrome extensions could be coming to the Edge browser. A forthcoming update will introduce ... something called "notification mirroring." That will mean pairing a Windows or Android smartphone or tablet with a Windows 10 computer. Users can then automatically have any notifications that normally appear on their smartphone or tablet show up on their computer screen instead. The idea is that while somebody is working on their computer, ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled some of the features for the next major update to Windows 10. Among the biggest surprise is better support for the world of Linux. The new features and tweaks will come in an update that's been codenamed Windows 10 Redstone. ... It's expected some time this summer and is planned to be the biggest update yet. Microsoft has likened Redstone to the level of change that came with Windows 8.1, though thankfully this time it will be less about undoing changes in the initial release that went down badly. Cortana & Action Center Overhauled The most visible changes for ... (view more)

Microsoft has finished work on a special edition of Windows 10 for Chinese users. It appears to be designed to keep the country's authoritarian government happy. The edition is known as Windows 10 Zhuangongban, which translates as Specially Provided ... Edition, and will be aimed mainly at government agencies and government-owned businesses. The new software is described in an article on Chinese website Caixin, though its unclear how free the site was to cover the news without either direct censorship or self-censorship. Software Meets 'Special Needs' Based on an automated Google ... (view more)

Windows 10 "phones home" thousands of times each day even with the most restrictive privacy settings, according to a newly published article. While the precise figures are in question, it highlights ongoing concerns about Microsoft monitoring. The ... experiment was carried out by a message board poster using the somewhat unlikely name of CheesesCrust. He decided to find out exactly what happens if Windows 10 is run with all tracking supposedly disabled. (Source: voat.co ) To do this, he used a virtual machine tool on a laptop to simulate installing Windows on a completely new machine. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have about having six different versions of Microsoft's Visual C++ Redistributable Package installed on my system (both in 32-bit and 64-bit versions), as listed in my Windows Control Panel via the ... Programs and Features. Can I remove any of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages, or do I need all of them? " My response: The answer to this question is similar to the question I received about having multiple instances of .NET framework installed on the system . In short: it's not advisable that you uninstall any of your C++ ... (view more)

Microsoft has reclassified Windows 10 as a "recommended update" for Windows 7 and 8.1. That means it will automatically download and attempt to install for many, and likely even most, users. It will be possible to stop the installation or to undo it ... without any major hassles (with some restrictions). That said, the download could be a problem for people on restrictive broadband plans. Late last year Microsoft classified Windows 10 as an optional update . That meant users could manually choose to download and install it through the Windows Update system that's normally used for ... (view more)

Microsoft has refunded a man whose son used his credit card to spend more than $8,000 on a video game. It's a surprise move given the son is 17 years old. Lance Perkins's son had used a credit card provided by his father to make "micro transaction" ... purchases for the FIFA soccer game on the Xbox video game console. The game includes an "Ultimate Team" mode in which players can create a fictional super team using players from around the world, rather than sticking to real world team lineups. The son claims that although he knew Ultimate Team carried an extra cost, he ... (view more)

Windows virtual assistant Cortana will soon step up scanning of emails by default, in order to make Cortana more useful. Whether its an improvement or a sign of creepiness on Microsoft's part is up for debate. The announcement comes almost 3 years ... to the date, where Microsoft publicly launched a campaign named " Don't get scroogled by Gmail ." In that campaign, Microsoft complained that Google's email scanning practice was unjust. Email Scanning Takes Note of Schedule Cortana's new email scanning is being tested among Windows Insiders - the group of users who have signed up to get ... (view more)