Microsoft Weekly: Gaming's at the fore, updates in store, inside Windows some more

[KRS]

It should come as no surprise that much like in previous weeks, the Redmond software giant’s campus was busy churning out news of all kinds these past seven days. From the heavier emphasis on gaming, to the hefty chunk of updates and indeed some Insider goodies, here is your Microsoft digest for the week of February 24-March 2.

Gaming's at the fore

The ever present and always growing backlogs were squeaking under pressure from a bunch of discounted games, future titles, and upcoming features.

It should come as no surprise that much like in previous weeks, the Redmond software giant’s campus was busy churning out news of all kinds these past seven days. From the heavier emphasis on gaming, to the hefty chunk of updates and indeed some Insider goodies, here is your Microsoft digest for the week of February 24-March 2.

Gaming's at the fore

The ever present and always growing backlogs were squeaking under pressure from a bunch of discounted games, future titles, and upcoming features.

Office 365’s February update brought improvements to the Editor pane, the Resume Assistant, a StaffHub Now tab for workday insights, the ability to enforce naming conventions across Office 365 groups, and network diagrams in Visio Online. As part of the same wave, Microsoft Teams finally added guest access, whereby users can be added regardless of the email address provider they have.

Those who don’t have an Office 365 subscription and wish to use Teams may just be able to do so at some point in the near future. Microsoft is apparently thinking of adopting a freemium model for its “chat-based workspace”, which would mean dropping the subscription as a prerequisite.

But far be it for Microsoft to think at only a macro level, as evidenced by its Quantum Development Kit, which this week was updated with support for macOS and Linux. Sticking with things of reduced size, Intel’s Meltdown and Spectre-mitigating microcode for sixth-gen Skylake processors finally made its way into Microsoft’s Update Catalog.

Finally, for people with a Surface Laptop, a firmware update showed up and apparently improved reliability. Or was it battery stability? Not even Microsoft is all too sure about that.

Inside Windows some more

What Microsoft is sure about is its Windows Insider program, a new build from which rather unexpectedly dropped on a Tuesday.

 

Bumping up the build number to 17110, the latest iteration is part of the Fast ring and contains an array of features geared towards enterprise users. There’s the ability to run custom actions during the feature update install sequence, as well as the deployment of post rollback scripts in system context. The latter was implemented following feedback from enterprises stating that most of their users do not have admin privileges, and thus cannot run scripts in admin context.

Enterprise users taking advantage of the Docker Hub will also be able to acquire matching Windows container images for Server Core and Nano Server with the advent of build 17110. As you’ve guessed however, the build has its fair share of fixes and known issues.

Business users who are interested in deploying IoT solutions got some good news this week, with the announcement of an upcoming extension of the support cycle for the Long-Term Servicing Channel, and the addition of NXP chip support. These particular changes may affect a smaller portion of the Windows install base, but the following do not.

Currently, apps with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) can be published to the Store, but those with a Command Line Interface (CLI) cannot. This will change with the soon to be released version 1803, which will give Console UWP apps the green light for Store entry, and give all Universal Windows Apps broader access to the file system.

Until all that rolls around, there are users still on previous versions of Windows 10. Whether you’re running on Anniversary Update (1607) or Creators Update (1703), you’ll be greeted by build 14393.2097 (KB4077525) or 15063.936 (KB4077528), respectively.

The Fast Ring

• Huawei unveiled its MateBook X Pro Windows 10 PC and we took a look at it.
• Lenovo showed off the Flex 14 and Yoga 730, also running Microsoft's latest OS.
• Microsoft expanded its collaboration with Xiaomi, centered around the cloud and AI.
• The Custom Vision service is now being offered in preview, along with an improved Face API and general availability of the Bing Entity Search.
• Office VP Javier Soltero has moved to a similar position on the Cortana team.
• Microsoft and Sunseap have signed a 20-year solar power agreement for the software giant's Singapore datacenter.
• Microsoft wants Congress to create data privacy and data use laws fit for the 21st century.

Logging off

We end on a rather strange note with Microsoft’s ever more complicated approach of support for its mobile devices.

 

Source