Windows 10 – Page 5 – Brian Jaikens

Windows 10 Will Be Free for Software Pirates

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users this summer, but Microsoft is also extending its offer to software pirates.

“We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10,” says Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Windows chief, in an interview with Reuters. The move means that thousands, perhaps millions, of machines will get a free copy of Windows 10 even if a license has not been properly acquired. “Anyone with a qualified device can upgrade to Windows 10, including those with pirated copies of Windows,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We believe customers over time will realize the value of properly licensing Windows and we will make it easy for them to move to legitimate copies.”

Microsoft has a long history of attempts to thwart software piracy. Windows XP was the company’s first operating system to introduce software activation to verify license keys, but it was quickly defeated using a corporate license key that many pirates shared on the internet back in 2001. Software activation has evolved throughout various versions of Windows, but pirates have largely managed to bypass it each time. While Microsoft’s plan might seem like letting software pirates go free, studies have found that in many cases pirated Windows licenses are installed on new machines without customers even knowing they have an illegal copy. Microsoft has tried various methods to encourage those customers to return their machines or seek out a legal copy, but it’s headache and a bad experience of Windows itself if that’s the first thing you have to deal with in certain regions.

Windows software piracy is no small feat, so Microsoft’s move is surprising and meaningful. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed in 2011 that only one customer in every 10 is actually paying for Microsoft software in China, and he joined President Obama and other business leaders to highlight the issues. Microsoft has also continually highlighted the financial impact of software piracy, but it continues to be a problem in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

Source: Windows 10 will be free for software pirates | The Verge.

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Microsoft Opens Skype to the Business World

Leave a Comment / Skype, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone / Brian

You’ve probably used Skype to chat with your family and friends. Now you can use it to chat with colleagues and co-workers as part of your official workday.
Unveiled Monday, the Skype for Business Technical Preview will give you a chance to try the workday edition of the software before it officially launches next month, Giovanni Mezgec, general manager for the Skype for Business team, said in a blog post.

Designed to replace and expand on Microsoft’s Lync communications platform, Skype for Business will allow you to search for, connect with and chat with other Skype users, whether inside or outside your organization. The new Skype for Business will also be integrated into Microsoft Office, so instant messages and voice and video calling with be accessible within Office as well. Otherwise, Skype for Business will work and act like the consumer version.

Meanwhile, don’t fret about any changes to those weekly video chats between the little ones and their grandparents. “The consumer experience known and loved around the world will continue to be referred to as Skype,” Microsoft’s Skype team said in a blog post. “You will still be able to use Skype the way you always have — with the same user account and contacts.”

Since taking over as Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella has been on a mission to transform the company into one that emphasizes “productivity and platform” and not just devices and services. Skype for Business falls into that new strategy, as the product is geared toward helping business users better collaborate with each other. The business-oriented version also emphasizes Microsoft’s need to continue to focus on corporations as a key source of customers and revenue.

Skype for Business is specifically geared toward companies and other organization as it offers enterprise-level security along with the necessary management controls for IT professionals. IT pros and business users can browse to the Office Evalutions page to register for and download Skype for Business.

Along with Skype for Business, a preview edition of Microsoft Office 2016 is now available for the enterprise crowd. The IT Pro and Developer Preview of Office 2016 for the Windows desktop offers enhancements for both users and IT administrators, including quicker searching and improved readability in Outlook and easier ways to deploy Office bug fixes and updates.

IT admins and business users who want to check out the new Office can sign in to download the program at the Office 2016 Preview (for Business) Profile page.

Source: Microsoft opens Skype to the business world – CNET.

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Microsoft To Deliver Windows 10 Updates Using Peer-to-Peer Technology

This Is How Microsoft Will Unite Your Windows 10 Devices

Leave a Comment / Technology, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone / Brian

Microsoft’s big promise with Windows 10 is its ability to run apps across the entire platform. The framework for these universal apps hasn’t been described in much detail, but a post on the Windows Blog gives a bit more insight under the hood. Redmond’s calling these “mobile experiences,” meaning apps you can use across many different devices; the software is mobile, not the gizmo you’re using it on. Cortana moving from smart phone to desktop and the Xbox One’s Game DVR tool being available on your gaming PC are but a few examples. The idea is to offer a set of standards across the Windows 10 platform so everything remains familiar regardless of what piece of hardware you’re accessing the application from. That means everything should have, in Microsoft’s words, an adaptive user experience with natural inputs; calls for cloud-based services including Cortana integration and the action center and one design language across the board.

Let’s break that down a bit, shall we? “Adaptive user experience” means that the app will, well, adapt to the size or resolution screen you’re using without skipping a beat in terms of inputs, menus and interface. This is where it gets interesting:

“Because Windows handles all of these inputs, we free you from needing to worry about how to parse the input for meaning – you only need to worry about which inputs are appropriate for your app and we’ll determine if they are present and parse the intent for you.”

Microsoft wants applications to take advantage of inputs that makes sense based on the device you’re using them on. So, touch input for OneNote on phones, a pen input with Surface Hub or a tablet, voice and eye tracking for desktop software. Another example Redmond gives is if you tap an icon with your finger, it’ll automatically get bigger than if a mouse-click is detected. This design philosophy will apparently travel across every Win10 device — including HoloLens and internet-of-things gadgets like the Raspberry Pi 2.

Developers will have access to the tools that Microsoft’s internal teams do, too, with the blog post specifically name dropping animations, APIs and controls. What does that mean for you, dear reader? Well, hopefully that apps keep up a consistent look and feel with Redmond’s internal projects like the Spartan browser, such as. Windows 10 is still on track for release sometime later this year, and the post promises even more detail come the software giant’s Build event in April.

For more technical information see Windows Blog

Source: Engadget – This is how Microsoft will unite your Windows 10 devices.

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