End of support is sneaking up on enterprise employees running Office on a Mac

Companies that have employees running Office for Mac 2011 have just over 100 days to replace the suite’s applications with those from last year’s upgrade, Office for Mac 2016.

Support ends for Office for Mac 2011 on Oct. 10, a date that Microsoft first stamped on the calendar two years ago, but has not widely publicized since. As of that date, the Redmond, Wash., developer will cease supplying patches for security vulnerabilities or fixes for other bugs.

The individual applications — Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Word — will continue to operate after support ends, but companies will be taking a risk, however small, that malware exploiting an unpatched flaw will surface and compromise systems.

To receive security and non-security updates after Oct. 10, IT administrators must deploy Office for Mac 2016 or instruct workers covered by Office 365 to download and install the newer suite’s applications from the subscription service’s portal.

Office for Mac 2011’s end-of-support deadline was originally slated for January 2016, approximately five years after the productivity package’s release. But in the summer of 2015, when it was clear that 2011’s successor would not be ready by early 2016, Microsoft extended its lifespan by 21 months. At the time, Microsoft cited the long-standing policy of supporting a to-be-retired product for “2 years after the successor product is released” when it added time to 2011.

Mac users: Steerage Class

The impending cutoff for Office for Mac 2011 is an issue only because Microsoft shortchanges Office for Mac users. Unlike the Windows version of Office, which receives 10 years of security support, those that run on macOS are allotted half that. Microsoft has repeatedly classified Office for Mac as a consumer product to justify the half-measure, even for the edition labeled “Home and Business.”

Nor does Microsoft update and service Office for Mac for corporate customers as it does the far more popular Windows SKU (stock-keeping unit). The latter will be upgraded with new features, Microsoft said in April, twice each year for enterprise subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus, with each release supported for 18 months before giving way to a pair of successors.

Mac editions, however, are refreshed with new tools at irregular intervals, often long after the same feature debuts in the same Windows application. (Recently, for example, Microsoft added a delivery-and/or-read receipt option to the Mac version of Outlook; that functionality has been in Outlook on Windows since 2013.) And because there are no regular, large-scale feature upgrades to Office for Mac, support is not curtailed by the release schedule as with Windows.

The difference between Offices — the behemoth Windows on one side, the niche Mac on the other — has been put into even starker relief recently: Microsoft has adopted March and September dates for launching new upgrades to Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus, and last week, Windows Server, but made no similar promises for Office for Mac 2016.

It’s clearly the odd app out.

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Will preview $20/month software-as-a-service plan Aug. 2

Earlier this week, Microsoft introduced two additional software-as-a-service subscription plans to the partners who will try to sell them.

The pair join an increasing number of subscription deals that the Redmond, Wash. company has modeled on the Office 365 pattern. The new plans even carry the “365” label, which Microsoft sees as a unifying identifier.

Microsoft 365 is, as CEO Satya Nadella introduced it Monday, “a fundamental departure in how we think about product creation,” composed of, initially at least, two plans. The more expensive, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, is simply a new name for a year-old, two-tier product titled “Secure Productive Enterprise E3” and “Secure Productive Enterprise E5.” Those SKUs (stock-keeping units) were introduced at Microsoft’s 2016 partner conference. Like SPE, M365 Enterprise tosses Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security into a bucket.

But “Microsoft 365 Business,” or M365 Business for short, is the more interesting of the two plans because it is actually new. Nadella thought the same. “I’m so excited about the product innovation that you will see today around small and medium-sized businesses,” he said during a two-hour keynote before partners.

So, what’s Microsoft 365 Business?

That’s the new deal Microsoft will push later this year after an unspecified time in preview, which will start Aug. 2.

M365 Business includes:

Office 365 Business Premium, a software-and-service plan that includes all the Office applications, hosted Exchange email, OneDrive storage service and more. Alone, Office 365 Business Premium costs $12.50 per user per month when billed on an annual basis.

Windows 10 Pro: Devices currently running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 Pro may be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro under M365 Business.

Windows 10 Business: According to Microsoft, “Windows 10 Business is a set of cloud-[based] services and device management capabilities that complement Windows 10 Pro and enable the centralized management and security controls of Microsoft 365 Business.” The services and tools include a subset of those from Intune, Microsoft’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, as well as Windows AutoPilot, an automated deployment service bundled with Windows 10’s March 2017 feature upgrade, aka 1703 and Creators Update.

How much does M365 Business cost?

$20 per user per month when it launches later this year.

That’s $7.50 per user per month more than Office 365 Business Premium, or an extra $90 per user annually. For that amount, customers receive the difference between the two plans: the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and the various management service components.

Who is Microsoft 365 Business for?

According to Microsoft, the plan is “built for small and midsize customers that have little to no IT resources on staff.”

Although companies of any size can purchase M365 Business licenses, any one customer can buy no more than 300 subscriptions, another signal that it aims at small and medium-sized organizations.

The limited management tools also play to that theme. They’re designed to be easy to use and offer only basic functionality, and are accessed via simple control panels similar to what they may have already used for Office 365.

What’s the Windows 10 upgrade all about in M365 Business?

Microsoft’s descriptions of this component are sketchy thus far. An extensive company Q&A on the subscription plan had the most information, saying, “If you have devices that are licensed for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Professional, Microsoft 365 Business provides an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.” (The “Professional” label holds for Windows 7, but 8 and 8.1 are dubbed “Pro” instead, as is Windows 10.)

Computerworld was unable to unearth additional details of the upgrade, specifically what happens when a customer cancels a M365 Business subscription or lets one expire. Do devices that were upgraded from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Pro retain the latter license? Or is the Windows 10 license revoked, forcing customers to reinstall the previous OS?

Microsoft declined to answer questions about that scenario, and analysts who had been briefed by the company said that licensing issues were not discussed in Microsoft’s presentation.

The matter of expiring subscriptions requires context. Generally, when customers exit a subscription, say, Office 365, the applications and services will retreat into a reduced functionality mode or stop working entirely. Something similar happens after a subscription to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 lapses. “When a subscription license expires … the Windows 10 Enterprise device seamlessly steps back down to Windows 10 Pro,” Microsoft states in a support document.

In other instances, Microsoft doesn’t strip away an upgrade. Customers who have subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 may upgrade devices equipped with Windows 7 Professional or 8.1 Pro, to Windows 10 Pro; if they later depart the E3 or E5 plan, the Windows 10 license permanently remains in place.

Which of these options remains — cancellation or retention — is what’s unclear in the case of M365 Business.

What management tools does M365 Business include?

Enough, says Microsoft, to adequately serve small and mid-sized businesses.

What Microsoft calls “a simplified management console” controls device and user management functions. The tools bundled in M365 Business include:

• Auto-install (and easy uninstall) Office
• Wipe company data from devices, both company- and employee-owned
• Enforce user settings on devices, including access to Windows Store or use of Cortana
• Force users to save all work to OneDrive for Business
• Configure new PCs as well as existing systems running Windows 10 Pro 1703 (Creators Update) or later using AutoPilot
• Automatically update and upgrade Windows 10 PCs using Windows Update for Business

We heard there’s a preview of M365 Business. What’s that deal?

Yes, there will be a preview available starting, Microsoft’s said, on Wednesday, Aug. 2. The preview will be accessible from this website. Users may, in fact, sign up now for the preview on that page.

Although there is no charge for the preview, Microsoft recommended that potential customers contact their preferred Microsoft Partner — or locate one — to handle the M365 Business deployment.

Interestingly, Microsoft said, “Devices running Windows 7 [Professional] or 8.1 Pro are eligible for an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro within the Microsoft 365 Business preview.” It was unclear whether that upgrade would be retained or retracted at the end of the preview.

What does M365 Business require?

According to Microsoft, Windows 7 Professional PCs “likely meet the minimum requirements.” However, only Windows 10 devices can be managed in M365 Business, a powerful motivator for equipping as many systems as possible with the newer OS.

The other major precondition for the subscription — Azure Active Directory (AAD) — is necessary to enforce user and device policies set in the management console, and for other tasks, such as AutoPilot set-up. Microsoft acknowledged that on-premises Active Directory works with M365 Business, but “it is not recommended.”

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Microsoft’s most direct shot at the MacBook yet

The one Surface product that fans have been clamoring over for years, a straight up Surface Laptop, is finally here. But, in taking design cues from both the Surface Pro and Surface Book lines, Microsoft has set lofty expectations for its first dedicated laptop device.

Priced at $999 (about £770, AU$1,330), the Surface Laptop clearly aims to chip at the MacBook and MacBook Air models that dominate college campuses practically worldwide. In fact, Microsoft claims that its cheaper (and larger) Surface Laptop can last far longer on a charge than Apple’s 12-inch MacBook: 14.5 hours.

However, every Surface Laptop shipped will come with Windows 10 S installed, Microsoft’s new version of Windows 10 that only accepts app installs downloaded from the Windows Store.

With the ability to switch from Windows 10 S to the 100% open Windows 10 Pro for $49 if you miss the chance in 2017 for free, should you need an app outside of the Windows Store that badly (spoiler: you probably will).

Regardless, at that price, can Microsoft garner enough interest from college students (or more likely their parents), who are often already strapped from the cost of an education?

The Surface Laptop in traditional ‘Platinum’

Design

Clearly, part of Microsoft’s plan is to lure those folks in with an incredibly gorgeous, and potentially trendsetting, design. The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop may very well be Microsoft’s most attractive computing product yet.

And, with four colors to choose from – Burgundy, Platinum, Cobalt Blue and Graphite Gold – there’s bound to be one that appeals to you.

A full aluminum lid and base wrap the laptop in much the same way it does a Surface Book, but ditches the aluminum in the keyboard deck for a Alcantara fabric that surrounds every plastic key and meets with the aluminum base in a seemingly airtight seal.

The fabric, according to Microsoft, is imported from Italy and laser cut to fit every Surface Laptop. Now, while many of the design elements are the same, the 13.5-inch (2,256 x 1,504) PixelSense touch display, the smooth glass-coated Precision touchpad, the chrome logo centered on the aluminum lid, we’re told that very few parts from previous parts are found within the Surface Laptop.

That much is obvious in the nature of the felt used for this keyboard deck compared against that which the Type Covers from Microsoft utilize. It’s smoother and more plush than those Type Covers, and we’re told it’s spill resistant.

The Surface Laptop’s keyboard deck is awfully comfortable

Plus, the additional height afforded by this traditional laptop design allowed Microsoft to equip the keyboard with 1.5mm of travel, and the difference in typing between that and the Surface Pro 4 is night and day. Finally, Microsoft devised a speaker system beneath the keyboard that radiates sound through the spaces between the keys and the keyboard deck.

The result isn’t much better audio than you’d find in a MacBook Air, perhaps a bit fuller, but at least it’s consistently in an uninterrupted position. Naturally, the audio gets a bit muffled when typing, but since the sound radiates throughout the laptop base, there isn’t a major loss in audio detail.

That leaves the side of the laptop base to house Microsoft’s proprietary power and docking port found on other Surface devices, as well as a USB 3.0 and Mini DisplayPort, not to mention an audio jack. If you’re already asking, “where’s the USB-C,” we’ve already been there.

Microsoft tells us that it intends for its own port to handle concerns of connectivity expansion via the Surface Connect port and its Surface Dock, while refraining from alienating customers that have yet to completely update to USB-C.

A fine explanation, but that doesn’t tell us why USB 3.0 and not USB 3.1 at least, as you’re missing out on some major data transfer speed improvements there.

Those strange strips of plastic on the base? They’re Wi-Fi antennae

Performance and battery life

Microsoft can pack the Surface Laptop with the latest Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors (Kaby Lake), up to 512GB of PCIe solid-state storage (SSD) and as much as 16GB of RAM.

That’s a mighty powerful laptop on paper, likely stronger than either the MacBook Air or 12-inch MacBook, while rising above even the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro that still utilizes Skylake processors.

(The $999 model comes packing a 128GB SSD and 4GB of RAM with the Intel Core i5.)

As for how Microsoft fit that kind of power a laptop just 0.57 inches (14.48mm) thin, a brand new, proprietary vapor chamber cooling system helps a whole lot. The system changes the physical state of the heat as it’s taken in through the center of a fan vent in the rear of the laptop base and spits it out of the sides of that same vent.

While we obviously weren’t able to stress-test the Surface Laptop, we were able to test out how it feels to use. For starters, at just 2.76 pounds (1.25kg), this thing is super light, which is all the more impressive considering it’s a 13.5-inch, Gorilla Glass 3 touchscreen you’re looking at.

Note the Surface Connect dock port – Microsoft’s answer to USB-C

Microsoft chalks this up to, in part, the thinnest LCD touch module ever used in a laptop design. This, in turn, helps the lid to lift with just one finger. However, perhaps the hinge design needs refinement.

While you can open the display with just a finger, that slightness in the hinge is felt when the screen bounces with every tap of the touchscreen. It’s the very reason we question the inclusion of touchscreens in traditional laptops to begin with. Unfortunately, it seems Microsoft hasn’t found a better solution here.

That said, typing on the keyboard is the best time we’ve had doing such on a Surface product yet, and the portability of the whole thing is right there with Apple’s best.

As for battery life, Microsoft is, again, claiming 14.5 hours on a single charge. Microsoft later clarified for us that this number was achieved via local video playback with all radios but Wi-Fi disabled.

That testing environment sounds very similar to how TechRadar tests for battery life, so we might see battery life results in a full review fall much closer to this claim. If so, then Surface Laptop will be very tough to beat in longevity and be a potentially major driver for sales.

This is the Surface Laptop in Cobalt Blue

Early verdict

The fact that the Surface Laptop ships with a limited – sorry, “streamlined” – operating system and costs more than some previous Surface systems that come with full fat Windows 10 cannot go unnoticed – regardless of the free upgrade through this year. Unless Microsoft changes its tune come 2018, folks buying one of these with holiday gift money at the turn of the year would be wise to tack 50 bucks on top of whichever configuration they choose to get Windows 10 Pro.

While this switch will be free for any Surface Laptops bought in the education sector, that won’t help the Surface Laptop’s target audience come 2018: late high school and college students.

That said, the Surface Laptop’s incredible, potentially trendsetting design cannot go unnoticed either. Frankly, this is a laptop that appears to outclass the MacBook Air and 12-inch MacBook – and possibly even the 13-inch MacBook Pro – for hundreds less.

Save for a questionable platform versus pricing decision, the Surface Laptop has all the makings of yet another winning piece of hardware from Microsoft.

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

In a rare step, Microsoft published a patch for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 8

Users of old Windows systems can now download a patch to protect them from this week’s massive ransomware attack.

In a rare step, Microsoft published a patch for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 8 — all of them operating systems for which it no longer provides mainstream support.

Users can download and find more information about the patches in Microsoft’s blog post about Friday’s attack from the WannaCry ransomware.

The ransomware, which has spread globally, has been infecting computers by exploiting a Windows vulnerability involving the Server Message Block protocol, a file-sharing feature.

Computers infected with WannaCry will have their data encrypted, and display a ransom note demanding $300 or $600 in bitcoin to free the files.

Fortunately, Windows 10 customers were not targeted in Friday’s attack. In March, Microsoft patched the vulnerability that the ransomware exploits — but only for newer Windows systems. That’s left older Windows machines, or those users who failed to patch newer machines, vulnerable to Friday’s attack.

Researchers originally believed the ransomware was spread through attachments in email phishing campaigns. That no longer appears to be the case.

Infection attempts from the WannaCry ransomware.

Once a vulnerable PC becomes infected, the computer will attempt to spread to other machines over the local network as well as over the internet. The ransomware will specifically scan for unpatched machines that have the Server Message Block vulnerability exposed.

Businesses can prevent this by disabling the Server Message Block protocol in vulnerable PCs. They can also use a firewall to block unrecognized internet traffic from accessing the networking ports the Server Message Block uses.

Fortunately, Friday’s ransomware attack may have been contained. A security researcher who goes by the name MalwareTech has activated a sort of kill-switch in WannaCry that stops it from spreading.

As a result, over 100,000 new infections were prevented, according to U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre. But experts also warn that WannaCry’s developers may be working on other versions that won’t be easy to disable.

“It’s very important everyone understands that all they (the hackers) need to do is change some code and start again. Patch your systems now!” MalwareTech tweeted.

Unfortunately, the kill-switch’s activation will provide no relief to existing victims. The ransomware will persist on systems already infected.

Friday’s ransomware attack appears to have spread mainly in Europe and Asia, with Russia among those nations hardest hit, according to security researchers.

Security experts are advising victims to wait before paying the ransom. It’s possible that researchers will develop a free solution that can remove the infection.

Have questions?

Get answers from Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner!
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.