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Windows 7 support lifecycle Microsoft made a commitment to provide 10 years of product support for Windows 7 when it was released on October 22, 2009. When this 10-year period ends, Microsoft will discontinue Windows 7 support so that we can focus our investment on supporting newer technologies and great new experiences. The specific end of support day for Windows 7 will be January 14, 2020. After that, technical assistance and software updates from Windows Update that help protect your PC will no longer be available for the product. Microsoft strongly recommends that you move to Windows 10 sometime before...

Each version of Windows 10 adds new features and functionality; occasionally we also remove features and functionality, often because we've added a better option. Below are the details about the features and functionalities that are no longer being developed in Windows 10. For information about features that have been removed, see Features we removed. The features described below are no longer being actively developed, and might be removed in a future update. Some features have been replaced with other features or functionality and some are now available from other sources. The following list is subject to change and might not...

Linux was a 'cancer' but Microsoft is now defending it IBM, Microsoft and the Linux Foundation have partnered with the Open Invention Network (OIN), a company formed to protect Linux from patent threats, to take on "Patent Assertion Entities", also known as patent trolls.Specifically, the group will help fund the Open Source Zone of Unified Patents, an organisation which provides legal services to deter "unsubstantiated or invalid patent assertions".The move had already been flagged at the Open Source Summit in Lyon last month, but the identity of the participating companies was not then known. OIN CEO Keith Bergelt spoke to...

Fourth time in three months when Symantec's antivirus crashes something. For the fourth time in three months, a Symantec security product is crashing user apps, and this time it's the latest Chrome release, v78, which rolled out earlier this week, on Tuesday, October 22.According to reports on Reddit [1, 2] the Google support forums [1, 2], and in comments on the official Google Chrome blog, Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is crashing Chrome 78 instances with an "Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage." error, as seen in the screenshot above.Users have been unable to use Chrome 78 at...

It's 2019 and government sites still require Internet Explorer"That's not a browser... THIS IS A BROWSER!" Companies using the Australian Border Force's (ABF) Integrated Cargo System (ICS) are having problems connecting to the portal using Internet Explorer.The issue, which officials attribute to a Windows 10 update on 8 October, has forced some users to roll back the changes in order to connect to the system through the venerable browser.Authorities said: "A change in behaviour of the protocol establishing the security of the connection with ICS is causing authentication failures."An email seen by The Register added that "the ABF have been...

Windows 10 could be better if only Microsoft got rid of its layers of made-men, according to a former Microsoft distinguished engineer. Tired of boring, buggy Windows 10 updates? You can blame them on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's failure to eliminate the company's legacy of appointing "made-men".

Microsoft has emerged victorious in a dramatic competition for public cloud resources for the U.S. Defense Department, beating out market leader Amazon Web Services, the Pentagon said on Friday. The contract could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade, according to a statement. Microsoft stock rose as much as 3% in extended trading after the announcement, and Amazon stock dipped less than 1% (Please see full article at the link)

MICROSOFT HAS HAD A MIXED MONTH in terms of market share, as we dive into the murky world of Netmarketshare's figures for September. Windows 10 is the big winner (as you'd hope). In terms of desktop/laptop users, it's now comfortably over the halfway line, with 52.38 per cent of the market (+1.39). With less than four months until it reaches end of life, Windows 7 still remains a major force, though it continues to drop. It now stands at 28.17 (-2.17). Lesser versions of Windows continue to chug along - Windows 8.x now stands at 4.1 per cent (-0.73) of...

Microsoft appears to have been really struggling to get updates for Windows 10 users right of late. What with advising Windows 10 users to install a critical update before any others to avoid potential problems, and then confirming the Windows Update Assistant itself had a security vulnerability. However, just days after the latest Windows 10 update, KB4520062, was released, Microsoft is advising that some users, "should not install this update," as it can break the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service. So, what’s gone wrong this time and who needs to avoid this latest Windows 10 update? What is...

The wrong kind of intrusion protection Symantec has acknowledged an issue with an update to its Endpoint Protection Client that causes a Windows kernel exception after users this morning came down with a mild case of Blue Screen of Death.A Reg reader who got in touch about the problem confirmed "multiple" businesses running Symantec were getting hit with the BSOD stick.According to the support note TECH256643: When run LiveUpdate, Endpoint Protection Client gets a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) indicates IDSvix86.sys/IDSvia64.sys is the cause of the exception BAD_POOL_CALLER (c2) or KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION (13A). When BSOD happens, Intrusion Prevention signature version is...

There’s no way I can write about the return of Flight Simulator without sharing just a little bit of my own story for context,... ... Like many of its predecessors, the new simulator models the entire planet, including something like 40,000 airports worldwide. I used to brag in presentations about FSX that we started with 2 terabytes of scenery data, and then compressed that to fit onto a couple of DVDs in a box. The world in the new version consists of 2 petabytes of data — yes, that’s one thousand times bigger. The scenery is built on Bing satellite...

Dear friends: I'm having a computer problem I would like some advice/help on. Please be aware that this problem has been ongoing for several weeks, so please don't advise me to reboot or clear out the cache since I've done that several times and it makes no difference whatsoever. And please don't ask if my computer is plugged in or turned on. I don't understand why cruelly having fun at the expense of someone with an issue is so popular here. Daily Motion is an excellent site for watching old movies and TV shows that YouTube won't allow. I used...

Free burritos keep the action going but, jeez, open a window would ya?Hardcore gamers no longer have to tread the knife-edge of actual life or death in the physical world while pwning n00bs in their favourite battle royale.Thanks to some newly installed and highly conspicuous emergency buttons – each helpfully labelled EMERGENCY BUTTON to avoid any potential confusion – players hunkering down for the long haul at the Belong Gaming Arena in central Bristol from Monday next week will not end their days as a dried up old skeleton with a Dual Shock still quivering between their bony fingers.No, they...

The rise of killer robots is now unstoppable and a new digital Geneva Convention is essential to protect the world from the growing threat they pose, according to the President of the world’s biggest technology company. In an interview with The Telegraph, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the use of 'lethal autonomous weapon systems' poses a host of new ethical questions which need to be considered by governments as a matter of urgency. He said the rapidly advancing technology, in which flying, swimming or walking drones can be equipped with lethal weapons systems – missiles, bombs or guns –...

Microsoft says it'll offer free security updates through the 2020 election in the United States — and in other interested democratic countries with national elections next year — for federally certified voting systems running on soon-to-be-outdated Windows 7 software.

With Microsoft embracing Linux ever more tightly, might it do the heretofore unthinkable and dump the NT kernel in favor of the Linux kernel? No, I’m not ready for the funny farm. As it prepares Windows 11, Microsoft has been laying the groundwork for such a radical release.I’ve long toyed with the idea that Microsoft could release a desktop Linux. Now I’ve started taking that idea more seriously — with a twist. Microsoft could replace Windows’ innards, the NT kernel, with a Linux kernel.It would still look like Windows. For most users, it would still work like Windows. But the...

COBOL is celebrating 60 years since its specifications were signed off. Darling of Y2K consultants, the language is rapidly approaching pensionable age, but many a greybeard owes their career to it. It arose from a desire to create a language that could straddle the computers of the era. Each manufacturer had its own way of working, which, while OK if a company always stuck with one maker, made portability of programs or skills a tad tricky. If only there was, say, a COmmon Business-Oriented Language? Wouldn't that be splendid? Mary Hawes, a programmer of Burroughs machines, put forward a proposal...

Users find PCs silenced while Microsoft looks into search fix Microsoft seems unable to catch a break with its Windows 10 updates. No sooner than it acknowledged that its CPU usage fix borked desktop search for some, users complained that the patch has also caused audio issues.Released on 10 September for Windows 10 1903 (aka the May 2019 Update), KB4515384 is a security update that included a fix for Cortana's CPU-munching habit. Alas, it turned out that the fix left desktop search a tad broken for some users.While the support page for the update resolutely states (at time of writing)...

One step forward, er, one step back. Nobody gets too far like that Microsoft's build 18362.356 (KB4515384​​​​​) for its Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) rolled out on Tuesday with security improvements for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, networking tech and input devices – and a CPU usage fix that, for some, has broken desktop search.The security tweaks address a variety of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities known as microarchitecture data sampling (MDS) for 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. Intel dealt with the CVEs at issue – CVE-2019-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 – in May.The update, released concurrently with Build 17763.737 for...

Some Insiders are more equal than others (sorry, Release Preview) Microsoft has attempted to clear the murky waters of its Windows Insider programme by stowing its virtual coin toss for those on the Slow Ring.Build 18362.10019 of Windows 10 went out last night to those keen to get their mitts on 19H2, the version expected to drop at some point this month.Unlike previous releases, Microsoft has turned on the new features for all Insiders.The previous arrangement had some users running build 18362.10014 with the new toys turned off while all the good little Insiders on build 18362.10015 had their stockings...