Windows’ latest operating system offering was unveiled today at their virtual event, boasting the arrival of the “next generation of Windows”.

The announcement comes somewhat of a shock to the tech world who were told that Windows 10 would be the final version of the Windows OS with over 1.3 billion user devices.

However due to the rapidly changing, hybrid working environment emerging from the pandemic and the announcement that Windows 10 would no longer receive extended support past 2025, it appears that Microsoft are updating the OS platform to incorporate the working from home demands from its users.

Microsoft CEO Natya Sadella agreed saying “We need to be empowered to choose the applications we run, the content we consume, the people we connect to, and even how we allocate our own attention”. He further stated that “operating systems and devices should mould to our needs, not the other way around.”

New centralised task bar interface layout in night mode

These demands are being met with features such as tighter integration with Microsoft Teams directly into the centralised task bar (a significant shift away from the attachments to Skype) and the blending of the Xbox Series X’s Auto HDR graphical enhancements along with Xbox Games Pass; both come pre-installed.

The focus of Windows 11 revolves around the simplification of the standard Windows user interface whilst increasing performance and multitasking functionality. Microsoft executive, Panos Panay revealed that Windows 11 Updates are 40% smaller that its OS predecessors and gone are the days of work being interrupted by Windows Updates as they now are downloaded and installed without the need for system shutdown.

Snap Layouts for compartmentalisation of multiple screens

Additionally, the new ‘Snap Layouts’ promote easier movement of apps to defined compartments of the screen for easier multitasking and the OS will remember collections of apps open on external monitors when the PC/Laptop is unplugged thanks to ‘Snap Groups’ – mirroring certain characteristics of the cancelled, dual screen Windows 10X project.

A further major change comes as part of the Microsoft Store which, through Microsoft’s partnership with Intel and Amazon, now allows developers to distribute their apps through the Microsoft Store without sharing revenue and Windows systems will be able to support Android apps using the Amazon AppStore. Developers can even use their own payment systems within the Microsoft Store.

Before today’s virtual launch, a first build of the OS was leaked allowing for a quick glimpse of the evolved ‘Sun Valley’ interface – with a Start Menu in the centre of the main task bar with a return of Windows Widgets in the form of an AI-powered personalised feed. Widget types include a news feed, maps and weather. This evolution of Widgets signals the quiet removal of the controversial Live Tiles introduced with Windows 8.

Windows 11 will be available as a free update to existing Windows 10 users requiring 64 GBs of storage and 4GBs of RAM, but only for ‘eligible PCs’ – those with two or more cores and a clock speed of 1GHz or higher.

A preview early test version of the new system will be released for app developers as part of the Windows Insider beta testing programme in the beginning of July 2021. A public access version is expected to be made available in October 2021 without new hardware speculated to be released alongside.

Microsoft have blocked availability of May’s Windows 10 Update from PCs with attached removable storage – such as USB flash drives and SD Cards.

The restriction has been put in place to prevent users encountering accidental drive re-assignment when they try to update: causing D: to become E:, or similar.

Harmless for most personal devices, any change is likely to cause maximum confusion for work devices which often rely on organisations sticking to a fixed structure for drive access.

Instead, users will be confronted by a warning message reading:

• Your PC can’t be upgrade to Windows 10. Your PC has hardware that isn’t ready for this version of Windows 10. No action is needed. Windows Update will offer this version of Windows 10 automatically once the issue has been resolved.

While USB drives may be easily removable to make May’s Windows 10 Update available again, users online have pointed out that Microsoft Surface devices and other Windows 10 enabled tablets are likely to be scuppered by the SD Card, which may have been pre-installed for work devices. More worryingly, Microsoft’s official support article notes ‘The drive reassignment is no limited to removable drives. Internal hard drives may also be affected.’

May’s 2019 Windows Update (which looks to include some promising new features) has undergone an extended testing period with the Windows Insider program this year, after some Windows users suffered file deletion problems during the October 2018 update cycle.

An undetected bug remains a setback for Microsoft’s flagship operating system, and the concept of a constant update cycle on a consistent platform. The problem will not be unfamiliar to Apple, however, whose 2017 OSX High Sierra update somehow reached release with an undetected root password security bug, only discovered weeks after release.

Microsoft have confirmed the removable storage bug will be resolved in a ‘future servicing update for Windows 10’ although May 2019’s Windows 10 update may well turn into June, July or August.

For IT support and expertise, contact our team today.

Microsoft’s Windows Team have previewed a new optional Light Theme to be released in May 2019’s Windows 10 update.

The glossy, bright look is currently available to those on the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build (a kind of test program for volunteer guinea-pigs of future Windows versions – accessed through Windows Update.)

Both Apple and Microsoft have introduced ‘Dark Modes’ more eye-sensitive for night-time use in recent years, either in popular software such as Outlook, or as part of the main operating system itself, as in the case of Apple’s Mojave update.

Windows Light Theme introduces a brighter feel for Microsoft’s signature operating system, likely to prove a hit among companies with certain in-house ‘styles’ favouring brighter tones, or to provide more options to those with visual impairments.

As of March 2019, Windows 10 is now in use across more than 800 million devices worldwide, running on just a smidge under half of all PCs in existence (49.9%.)

May’s Windows update (build 18362.30) also features numerous minor fixes, including improvements to printing processes, splitting Cortana from Windows Search, and extending dark mode within OneDrive.

Light theme will be available within the ‘Personalisation’ settings available by right-clicking on the Windows desktop, once the new update lands in May.

For Microsoft expertise and support – contact our team today

Microsoft have re-released October 2018’s Windows 10 update, after pausing the upgrade for technical fixes last month.

Some users complained of missing files and other update issues due to a bug with folder re-direction, with Microsoft eventually halting the availability of the download globally.

The move sees a more cautious Microsoft seek to evade criticism with a new ‘focus on quality’. The revised update has taken a month to re-issue and was released to ‘Windows Insiders’ (a kind of Beta-testing pool) several weeks ago for initial vetting, prior to re-release for the general public.

Since 2015, Windows 10 has been updated incrementally (much like rival Apple MacOS) with each iteration upgrading Windows 10 itself rather than seeking to replace the platform.

For businesses, updates may be managed centrally to avoid stumbling into first-day mishaps, such that home users were most likely to suffer from the results of October’s upgrade false-start. As always, Lineal’s advice is to delay major operating system upgrades for at least 24 hours, to ensure release-bugs have been identified.

In Microsoft’s defence, Windows 10 is now running on 700 million devices, and shows healthily declining customer incident rates – in addition to high public satisfaction, allegedly receiving the best Net Promoter Score (NPS) of any version of Windows to date.

The October Windows 10 update remains the only one of its kind to be pulled, and then re-released, and the pressure will be on Microsoft to ensure it remains unique.

For Windows expertise and support, please contact our team today.

Microsoft have announced the introduction of eye-tracking cursor and typing controls, as part of the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build.

‘Eye control’ is due to become a new accessibility feature (think those unable to use conventional physical controls), which uses a dedicated camera to track the tiny movements of your eyeball and triangulate where the user is focused on screen.

The technology itself is brought to you by Swedish eye-tracking software developer and camera company Tobii – working in partnership with Microsoft, and various health groups, for example Motor-Neuron Disease patient communities. Specialist cameras can be designed into special devices, retrofitted to the base of a device screen as a peripheral, or fitted into the user’s glasses.

Tobii’s ‘Eye Tracker 4C’ is the very first to support Windows 10, and the company clearly sees widespread roll-out as part of a mainstream operating system to be their best route to widespread adoption and awareness of the assistive technology among a broader user-base. Sight-based control has already been used successfully in gaming and other consumer fields, but introduction as a ‘baked-in’ part of Windows 10 would be setting a new standard for usability in business IT.

Independent research suggests that users may initially find eye-tracking controls tiring after long periods of use, such that their PC usage time may need to be moderated. In addition, recent studies have suggested that although eye-tracking data is not considered by legally classed as ‘biometric’, it is possible to identify users by their eye-tracking data from PC use, in much the same way that a key-logger might record unique typing data.

However, with Windows 10 now running on over 270 million devices, eye-tracking abilities may be seen on a PC near you sooner than expected.

Lineal’s IT Support team are certified as a Microsoft Gold Partner – for advice and support, contact us today: 01271  375999

Update 25.07.17 – Following public pressure, Microsoft have announced MS Paint will still remain available as an optional free download via the Windows Store.

Microsoft Paint may be about to be killed off by Microsoft, following an announcement of feature changes in Windows 10.

The Windows 10 Fall [Sic] Creators Update has been published with a list of existing Windows 10 features to become ‘deprecated’ (whereby Microsoft will not continue updates and development) or ‘removed’ (scrubbed from the updated operating system entirely.)

In addition to Paint, other casualties of this year’s biggest Windows 10 update include 3D Builder App and Windows Powershell 2.0 (both replaced), Outlook Express (now outdated), and Microsoft Reader App (no, we’ve no idea either) which will be incorporated into Microsoft’s Edge browser.

There’s a problem though – most of these are bland or outdated business IT tools with limited appeal, but Paint is an app we have an emotional connection with. For many people, Microsoft Paint was the very first Windows computer program they became familiar with as schoolchildren.

Paint is comedic shorthand for bad-image editing because it’s been around since 1985 and Windows 1.0. We’ve enjoyed 32 years of stick figures, badly coloured-in drawings of pets, a hilariously naff default pallet, dodgy re-sizing and eye-sight destroying colour fill tools that orangewash more of the canvass than we were expecting.

We can only hope that Microsoft’s new Paint 3D becomes the future of quick and easy image editing on the platform – providing the same initial enjoyment of computing to the generation that will grow up with tablets and 3d-printing.

Farewell Paint, we’ll miss you.

Lineal are Microsoft Gold Partners – for Windows help and support, please get in touch with our team.

Get Windows 10

If you haven’t already upgraded to Windows 10, Lineal highly recommend doing so before the free upgrade period ends on 29th July 2016. The free upgrade is available to PC users currently running a valid copy of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1.

Step 1 – Visit Microsoft’s Windows 10 Downloads page by clicking here, and select your current version of Windows from the dropdown menu, and click ‘Confirm’.

Step 2 – When prompted, select ‘Upgrade this PC now’.

Step 3 – Windows 10 will begin downloading, showing a progress report on screen. This can take 15 minutes to an hour, depending on your PC and internet connection speed.

Step 4 – When Windows 10 has downloaded, click to install Windows 10 and your PC will reboot – beginning the installation of the new operating system, and copying across all your existing files/settings.

Step 5 – When your PC has completed the installation and launched your desktop – enjoy Windows 10!

For extra help or advice in upgrading to Windows 10 for free, please contact Lineal’s IT support team today – 01271 375999

automatic windows 10 upgrade

Edit – 14:15 25.05.16: Following customer feedback, Microsoft have now added an additional pop-up which confirms update scheduling time to give users an additional chance to opt-out of the update.

A Microsoft ‘trick’ which prompts an automatic upgrade to Windows 10 has been condemned as misleading by PC users.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 update prompt was recently changed so that the ‘X’ close button, instead of closing the prompt, schedules an automatic update. PC World declared the change a ‘trick’ and Windows users who preferred older operating systems took to social media to complain.

Instead, users must specify to cancel the scheduled upgrade by clicking a small link in the fourth line of text which reads “Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade.”

This is likely to catch out many users who have ignored the ‘GWX app’ so far, who until recently would have used the close button as their only way to close the updater and avoiding an automatic Windows 10 upgrade. Once upgraded by mistake, PC users must use Microsoft’s rollback service to return to Windows 7 or 8.1.

Escalating measures to push users towards upgrading demonstrate Microsoft’s drive to reach its stated target of one billion users running Windows 10 by the start of its 2018 fiscal year (beginning around October 2017).

The controversy surrounding a automatic Windows 10 upgrade is likely to only draw more attention to Microsoft’s Windows 10 upcoming upgrade deadline – the free Windows 10 upgrade will cease to be available to PC users after the 29th of July.

For Windows IT support and expertise, contact Lineal today.

Almost certainly – but don’t panic. Details of anonymous data gathered from Windows 10 users were released this week, with Microsoft publishing more usage information surrounding Windows 10 tracking.

In a blog post, Microsoft explained that the data is gathered for “Standard diagnostic, anonymous analytics that enables us to deliver the best Windows 10 experience possible.”

Via Windows 10 tracking, Microsoft have now measured more than 200 million active devices running the new operating system, 2.4 billion search questions asked of Virtual Assistant Cortana, and more than 44.5 billion minutes spent using the new Microsoft ‘Edge’ browser.

Routine data collection is unlikely to concern most users – and has clearly been announced to show Windows 10’s success. Microsoft also casually notes that the new operating system, released in the summer of 2015, has been “Outpacing… Windows 8 by nearly 400%.”

The accelerating adoption of Windows 10, including among 22 million Enterprise and Education customers, offers Microsoft renewed hope for growing the user base of associated products, such as Azure cloud computing, Windows Phone and the impressive Office365.

If concerned, users can ‘turn off’ all feedback (aside from error reports) by setting the feedback option to ‘Basic’ in their settings.

Taking a more nuanced view, this admission illustrates an industry ever more capable (and willing) to be flexible with privacy concerns of customers in the quest for the perfect user experience.

Need Windows IT support and advice? Contact Lineal today: www.lineal.co.uk or 01271 375999

Windows 10.1 updates security

With ‘Windows 10.1’ now barely a month old, and the Microsoft operating system already running on over 12 million business PCs, how fares Microsoft’s free updates strategy?

Windows 10.1 update was released with relatively little fanfare (be honest, you didn’t notice) adds features that, understandably with hindsight, might have been a distraction at the main Windows 10 release back in July.

Packaged within were mainly performance and security upgrades – Windows 10.1 will now boot almost 30% faster than an old Windows 7 system on the same device, the Cortana virtual assistant has some new handwriting recognition skills and there are new enterprise tools for mobile devices. Microsoft Edge runs smoother too, offering previews of tabs before viewing and syncing favourites across devices.

Most importantly, after recent corporate data breaches in the news, Microsoft have added a range of new security safeguards. These including ‘Windows Hello’, supporting enterprise grade biometrics including fingerprint and facial recognition – sadly currently only available for US users.

Aside from controversy surrounding user privacy then (if you didn’t notice your Windows 10.1 update, that’s maybe because Microsoft installed it automatically on your device without asking you) the first free update went ahead with relevant additions and limited fuss.

Starting free updates officially moves Microsoft into line with Apple’s OS X business model that has become the industry standard. Yet limited promotion of Windows 10’s ongoing development risks downplaying Microsoft’s progress.

Which would be unfair, because Microsoft is plainly taking extra care to develop the business security of their product range, including the excellent Office365, Microsoft Azure and now Windows 10.1. Microsoft is clearly listening to business’ fears, and businesses should welcome it.

For help and support with Microsoft enterprise IT, contact Lineal today.

Microsoft Office 2016 is here: the staple of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation work everywhere is now available for single purchase on Windows 10 and Mac OS X.

Office 2016’s apps will look very familiar to existing customers – but Office 2016 is undoubtedly ‘smarter’ than any previous version of Office, with its most impressive new features aimed at boosting productivity for both home and business customers.

Take Microsoft’s new ‘Smart Lookup’ function for example – click a single word in a document and Office will web search that term (via Bing) within the window, allowing instant research.

Cleverly, Office 2016 will even infer from the context of the surrounding paragraph the exact meaning of the word being searched for, preventing irrelevant homonyms clouding your search results. A neat trick certainly, but also an important one for certain sectors – for instance helping children do school work with protection against loading inappropriate search results based on words with double-meanings.

It is a similar case with 2016’s new ‘Tell me’ function. Gone are the clunky help menus or cartoon paperclips – ‘Tell’ Word for a tool like ‘mail merge’ or ‘footnotes’ and the Office 2016 apps will not load search results, but immediately take you to the exact menu and function needed.

The latest version allows for collaborative working (finally catching up with rival Google Drive) with multiple users able to edit documents in real time with a visible tracked changes function, from remote locations if needed. As an added bonus, Office is integrated with Skype, aimed at making the process of collaborative working more easily communicated.

Part of productivity is personal though, so Office 2016 also introduces ‘Office 365 Planner’, an app aimed at time and project management. Even Outlook will attempt to shave a few minutes off your day by linking attachments from cloud-based OneDrive and introducing ‘Clutter’, an automated email filtering service which avoids distractions by pushing less relevant emails into a separate folder, helping you to best utilise your time. Office 2016 knows that time is worth money, and for some may be a very smart investment indeed.

Need advice on software for your business, or help migrating to Microsoft Office 365 services? Lineal can help – contact us today: http://www.lineal.co.uk/contact/

ASUS have announced their latest new desktop computer, the tiny ASUS Vivo Stick: a PC little bigger than a pocket highlighter.

Smaller businesses take note: it’s easy to imagine commercial clients making good use of such practical technology. At under 14cm long, the tiny Vivo stick resembles a USB memory stick and can be easily moved between hot-desks by mobile employees, or into premises too small for even the smallest of small-form desktop PC towers.

The Vivo Stick will run Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system via an Intel Cherry Trail Atom Processor, and can be plugged directly into any screen with an HDMI port. In addition to a micro USB port for power, Wi-fi and Bluetooth are combined with 2 spare USB ports and an audio socket to give the Stick the basic connections needed for everyday external devices: a mouse, keyboard and speakers.

Don’t expect performance miracles at this stage. Marginally superior to Intel’s lacklustre ‘ComputeStick’ offering back in April – the Vivo Stick incorporates only 2GB of memory and 32GB eMMC flash storage, although both Asus and Intel must correctly suspect that many users will find this more than sufficient for ordinary work tasks – email, word processing and other admin.

The low price will also help ensure market interest. Retailing at around only $129 in the US (around £85) ASUS’ Vivo Stick will likely be a cost-effective and portable option for entry-level personal computing, new startups, small businesses, and even presents a competitively priced alternative for computer labs and classrooms in the education market – any sector needing to equip users without ‘fixed’ workstations for basic IT needs.

If your business has some unconventional IT challenges – Lineal can help. Why not get in touch with us by clicking here: http://www.lineal.co.uk/contact/

Microsoft’s Windows 10 has been available to home PC users for more than two weeks now – but as more users get chance to test its features, how has the new operating system fared against the initial scrutiny of the news cycle?

With more than 67m devices now running Windows 10, some horror stories have already graced the internet post-migration. Not everyone has had an easy upgrade, with some users reporting touchpad or connectivity problems. Windows 10’s propensity to slideshow images, pulled from users’ ‘My Pictures’ Folder into the start menu, has caused the obvious hilarity. Some unfortunate early adopters found their PC displaying adult content from deep in their personal files played in an embarrassing slideshow.

The most widespread complaint though has been Microsoft’s new ‘Wi-Fi Sense’ feature. WiFi Sense by default allows your contacts and Skype friends shared access to your Wi-Fi network credentials without handing over a password. This has prompted serious security and privacy concerns.

The fuss here is not entirely without basis, with the tech community correctly noticing that even if Wi-Fi Sense doesn’t share access from your immediate friend on to a third party, in reality your immediate friend may share access to your network to a third party via their own Wi-Fi Sense if your friend has obtained the password first hand – either from you or via a written source.

Users merely need to turn off Wi-Fi Sense, but it’s important that those making the upgrade are aware of the need to make a decision over protecting their own network security.

Overall though, these problems are a shadow of the grief that Windows 8 gave Microsoft, and here at Lineal we’ve generally been impressed by the transition – the majority of our customers who have wanted to upgrade to the new operating system have done so without incident. The removal of Windows 8 style full-page apps, the introduction of the new Edge browser and the welcome return of the Start Menu have all been greeted warmly by a worldwide user base that has clearly felt listened too.

Most importantly, because some internet stories have reported lost files after upgrade, the golden rule still stands – if you have important data, always make sure this is backed up elsewhere, just in case.

If you’d like advice and support upgrading your systems – why not click here to see what Lineal could offer your business: http://www.lineal.co.uk/systems/

Windows 10 officially launched this Wednesday – but is an early update a good idea?

Return of the familiar start menu but with cool live tiles!

Here are our initial verdicts Continue reading…