Category: Microsoft Office 2016

How to restore Windows 7 or 8 after an unwanted Windows 10 upgrade

It’s now possible for your computer to be updated to Windows 10 without your explicit content.

Windows10-7 Microsoft’s putting away the carrots and breaking out the sticks in its quest to migrate 1 billion users to Windows 10 over the next couple of years.

After pushing out the free upgrade as a Recommended update to Windows 7 and 8 users earlier this year—which means that you downloaded the initial installation bits if you use the default Windows Update, like most people should—Microsoft changed its nagging pop-up prompt in an insidious way over the past week. For the past six months, the “Get Windows 10” pop-up asked permission to start an update, but lacked a “No thanks” option, so the only way to avoid it was to close the window by pressing the X in the upper-right hand corner. Now, the pop-up says “We will upgrade you at this time,” and pressing the X counts as consent. You need to click a small, easily missed link in the pop-up to cancel the upgrade, instead.

It’s a nasty bait-and-switch after months of using an incessant pop-up—which can’t be disabled without the help of registry hacks and other advanced tricks—that wore down users, encouraging them to simply X out of the irritant when it appeared each and every time they opened their computer. Worse, it’s now possible for your computer to be updated to Windows 10 without your explicit content.

Judging by the hundreds of comments on Reddit, Twitter,PCWorld, my inbox, and other places across the web in response to the situation, a lot of people are finding themselves upgrading unintentionally. And, well, a lot of them are pissed.

Fortunately, it’s easy to roll your PC back to Windows 7 or 8 after installing Windows 10.

How to reverse a Windows 10 upgrade

The easiest time to say “No” is during the initial setup process. If you decline Windows 10’s end user license agreement, it’ll bring you back to your older operating system.

But what if it’s too late for that?

RestoreWindows7

You’re allowed to roll back to your previous Windows version for 30 days after upgrading to Windows 10. Simply open the Start menu and head to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. If you’re eligible to downgrade, you’ll see an option that says “Go back to Windows 7” or “Go back to Windows 8.1,” depending on which operating system you upgraded from. Simply click the Get started button and go along for the ride.

Once you’ve returned to your previous version of Windows, you need to tinker with it to perfect your setup once again. In particular, you may need to reinstall some programs, and don’t forget to use your Windows 7 password rather than your Windows 10 password if you created a Microsoft Account for the new operating system during the set-up process.

Stop it from happening again

Once you’ve upgraded a PC to Windows 10, you’ll always be able to do so again in the future. But if you aren’t enticed by Windows 10’s best features and more subtle awesome tweaks—a feeling I completely understand after a non-consensual upgrade—you can turn to a pair of helpful tools to disable the Windows 10 upgrade prompts from returning.

GWX Control Panel was the first anti-Windows 10 pop-up tool on the block, and it works marvelously, though its complicated user interface is full of granular options and may turn off some people. Never10 by noted security researcher performs the same basic task in a much simpler way. Either program does the trick.

GWX Control Panel and Never10 will also prevent your computer from being upgraded to Windows 10 if it hasn’t yet. Installing one of those is a much better option than disabling Windows Updates completely to avoid Microsoft’s pestering, as disabling patches can leave you vulnerable to new security flaws.

Now for the good news: Microsoft says it plans to phase out the GWX pop-up once it starts charging for the Windows 10 upgrade in July. Fingers crossed.

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10 reasons why you shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 10

The end of Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade offer is right around the corner. But while Windows 10 is great, there are valid reasons to reject it.

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An offer you can refuse

The clock is ticking, folks. If you want to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, you only have until July 29, 2016 to do so. And most people should! Windows 10 is the best Windows yet, chock full of handy new features, sleek under-the-hood improvements, andheadache-killing extras.

But it’s not for everybody. There are some very real, very valid reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10.

If you’re on the fence about whether to accept or reject Microsoft’s freebie, read on for some concrete justifications for staying put.

No Windows Media Center or DVD support

Before we dig into the meatier stuff, let’s take a look at what you’ll potentially give up if you upgrade to Windows 10, starting with some robust media playback options.

Windows 10 kills Windows Media Center off completely, after Windows 8 pushed it into a dark corner. There’s a reason for that: Windows Media Center is fairly niche, and not a lot of people use it. But if you do, you won’t want to upgrade to Windows 10 unless you’re prepared to dive into alternatives like Kodi, Plex, and DVR workarounds.

Oh, and if you’re on Windows 7, be aware that Windows 10 doesn’t offer native DVD playback, though there are no-cost alternatives you can use.

No desktop gadgets or widgets

Likewise, if you’re a big fan of Windows 7’s gadgets and widgets for the desktop, they aren’t available in Windows 10. Which is good, because they’re horribly insecure. Whether you choose to stay on Windows 7 or upgrade to Windows 10, you’d probably be better off using Rainmeter’s seriously slick interactive desktop software.

No OneDrive placeholders

Windows 8.1 offered a handy feature for hardcore OneDrive users: placeholders. Placeholders showed everything stored in your OneDrive account in the Windows 8.1 file system, but only downloaded files to your PC when you opened them. It was a wonderful way to stay on top of your cloud-stored files without downloading all of them to every Windows device you logged into with your Microsoft account, especially if you’ve stashed dozens of gigabytes’ worth of stuff into OneDrive.

Unfortunately, users found it confusing, and Microsoft ripped placeholders out of Windows 10. There are hints that a similar feature may make an appearance someday, but it hasn’t yet, so if placeholders are a must-have feature for you, you’ll want to avoid upgrading to Windows 10. The new operating system’s less granular selective sync options just aren’t the same.

No control over Windows Updates

Aaaaaand here’s the biggie. Windows 10 utterly eradicates the ability to manually control your system updates. Windows 10 Pro will let you defer updates for a few months, but that’s the extent of it. If Microsoft pushes out an update, your system willinstall it eventually (though identifying your Wi-Fi connection as “metered” lets youchoose when updates download, at least).

This isn’t a big deal for people who stuck with Windows 7 and 8’s default Windows Update options, which downloaded patches automatically. But if you like to control your own update destiny, this could be a showstopper.

Privacy concerns

That segues nicely into another controversial Windows 10 “feature.” Microsoft’s new operating system tracks you far more closely than previous versions of Windows, especially if you use the express settings during the initial setup. The search bar utilizes Cortana, Windows 10’s digital assistant, and sends all your queries to Microsoft servers. Your Windows Store app usage is tracked for ad targeting. Windows 10 tracks your typing, location, Edge browser behavior, program installations and more.

It’s a lot. To be fair, a lot of the concern roaring around this is overblown; most of Windows 10’s potential privacy concerns can be disabled. But there’s no way to turn off some of the telemetry data Windows 10 collects about your system and beams back to the mothership. Microsoft executives don’t consider this a privacy issue. If you do, Windows 10 isn’t for you.

Ads and more ads

Windows 10 doesn’t only track your Windows Store app usage for improved ad targeting; it frequently pushes ads of its own at you. By default, you’ll see pop-up notification ads imploring you to get Skype or Office (even if you have Office), ads for suggested Windows Store apps slipped into your Start menu, and even occasional full-screen lockscreen ads for high-profile Windows Store releases.

I loathe the idea that my paid-for operating system—and yes, Windows 10 isn’t truly free—is pushing ads in my face. Fortunately, all of the offenders can be disabled. But doing so requires diving into arcane system settings located in different far-flung corners of the operating system.

Microsoft’s aggressive upgrade tactics

Microsoft’s been acting pretty shady in its aggressive quest to push Windows 7 and 8 users to Windows 10, employing unstoppable pop-ups, malware-like tactics, forced upgrades, intrusive full-screen takeovers, and nasty tricks to coax—and sometimes outright deceive—people into adopting the new OS. It eventually became so heavy-handed that some users have disabled Windows Updates entirely rather than suffer the barrage.

But you know that. If you’re still considering upgrading to Windows 10, you’ve lived through it.

None of that detracts from Windows 10’s underlying awesomeness. But it may have detracted from your desire to upgrade to Windows 10—and rightfully so. If you’re unhappy with Microsoft’s ethics and tactics in handling Windows 10 upgrades, you’re well within your rights to stay put where you’re at.

Software compatibility

In the wake of those forced upgrades, dozens and dozens of readers reached out to me with tales of woe, many revolving around software that simply doesn’t work with Windows 10. As my colleague Glenn Fleishman recently pointed out at Macworld, old software isn’t inherently bad software—but some of it won’t work in Windows 10.

If you rely on particular pieces of software, do a quick Google search to make sure they’ll work in Windows 10 before you upgrade. Office 2003—the last pre-Ribbon UI Office—isn’t compatible, for instance, nor is software that requires the use of Windows 7’s “XP Mode” compatibility, which isn’t available in Windows 10. Microsoft’s upgrade advisor is supposed to let you know if any software won’t work with Windows 10, but users report that it isn’t very reliable. Doing some homework now could save you some big headaches in the future.

Hardware compatibility

Similarly, you’ll want to make sure Windows 10 works with your PC, too. No matter whether you’re running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, I’d recommend running Microsoft’s hardware compatibility tool to scan your system. To do so, open the Get Windows 10 app—the taskbar icon that’s been tossing out all the upgrade pop-ups—and click on the compatibility report option.

But wait! That’s not all. The tool only checks your core PC reliably. Some people who upgrade to Windows 10 discover that their hardware peripherals won’t work, particularly older printers and scanners. If you have any aging peripherals connected to your PC, be it a printer or a beloved keyboard, I’d again suggest conducting some quick Google searches to ensure your gear won’t become paperweights if you decide to upgrade.

Ain’t broke, don’t fix it

This final reason applies more to people who resist change or aren’t very technically savvy. Yes, Windows 10 is stellar and absolved Windows 8’s worst sins. Getting used to the new operating system shouldn’t be too difficult for many PC users—but the transition isn’t entirely seamless. From Cortana to the introduction of the Edge browser to the radically new-look Start menu, and Windows 10’s evolution into being a more cloud-centric operating system, there are some big changes you’ll need to wrap your head around.

Do Windows 10’s new features and under-the-hood improvements make upgrading worthwhile? I think so. But if you aren’t comfortable dealing with changes on your computer, you might want to stay put. I know several less technically inclined people who paid technicians to revert their PCs to Windows 7 after they couldn’t wrap their heads around Windows 10.

Conversely, if you’ve perfected your workflow on your current operating system and don’t see much benefit in marquee Windows 10 features such as Cortana, the Windows Store, DirectX 12, and virtual desktops, it may not be worth the hassle to switch over to Windows 10.

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10 compelling reasons to upgrade to Windows 10

The deadline for Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade looms. Here’s why you don’t want to let it pass by.

windows-7-to-windows-10

An offer you shouldn’t refuse

The deadline cometh. July 29 looms, and after that, Windows 7 and 8 users will no longer be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you’ve been waiting for Microsoft to polish out the operating system’s initial bugs, it’s time to make the leap.

This article’s more for the fence-sitters—the folks who haven’t decided whether to stick with what they know or embrace Microsoft’s new-school operating system. There are some very valid reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10, to be honest. But Windows 10 is the best Windows yet, and most people should claim the free upgrade while there’s still time.

Here’s why.

Improved desktop experience

Let’s be frank: Windows 8’s fugly, unfunctional, and obnoxiously colored Start screen sucked. So did the way Windows 8 hid crucial information behind hidden “charms,” which had no on-screen hints for how to access them. It scared a lot of people away from upgrading, and rightfully so.

You don’t have to worry about that with Windows 10.

Windows 10 takes the same core ideas behind Windows 8, but makes them palatable for the desktop audience. Windows Store apps are still present, but they’re in desktop windows that can be resized and used like any other. The Start menu’s back, with a pop-out section that puts information-delivering Live Tiles to better use—and yes, they can all be deleted if you want.

True, there are some changes to wrap your head around if you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. But the basic building blocks of the operating system will be largely familiar.

Enthusiast-friendly additions

More than simply being familiar, Windows 10 is superior to Windows 7 for PC enthusiasts, because Microsoft made an active effort to woo desktop diehards.

Windows 10’s hardcore tools range from virtual desktops (pictured) to improved high-DPI monitor support to pasting text inside the command prompt. Easy file version recovery? Better storage management tools? Windows 10 has it all.

The operating system even provides power-user tools for Windows Updates, letting you schedule updates to run at a specific time or distribute patches across your local network using peer-to-peer technology. It’s great.

Under-the-hood improvements

If you’re upgrading from Windows 7, you’ll be amazed at just how quick and modern Windows 10 feels. Microsoft optimized Windows’ underlying code in Windows 8, resulting in an operating system that boots like greased lightning—especially if you have an SSD—and just plain feels faster.

It’s just one of the many Windows 8 improvements that Windows 7 holdouts will enjoy in Windows 10.

Native security protection

This appeals more to everyday PC users than hardcore enthusiasts, but Windows 10 is inherently much more secure than Windows 7. The operating system ships with Microsoft’s Windows Defender antivirus software and the Windows Firewall installed and enabled by default, which provides many PCs with a huge security uplift. (You’d be amazed how many people never bother to install new security software after their free Norton or McAfee trial runs out.)

But Microsoft didn’t stop there. Windows 10’s UEFI Secure Boot requirement protects against low-level rootkits that could infect your PC, the SmartScreen filter guards against malicious websites, and Windows Hello makes biometric-based authentication easy-peasy.

Better security is always a good thing.

Cortana

Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri and Google Now replaces Windows 10’s basic search functionality, and I couldn’t be happier. Cortana mixes good humor with web-based smarts that can help you set reminders and alarms, stay on top of sports scores and news, navigate and operate your operating system, track packages, plan trips, and more. Even better: Cortana’s going to become more proactive and usefulwhen the Windows 10 Anniversary Update rolls around August 2.

DirectX 12

Microsoft’s powerful, next-generation DirectX 12 graphics technology is exclusive to Windows 10 devices. If you’re a PC gamer, this feature alone is worth the upgrade.

We’re still in the early days of DirectX 12 adoption. Most PC games still release in DirectX 11. We’re not really sure of the graphics API’s full potential, but early DX12 implementations in games tend to result in smoother experiences and higher overall frame rates. That’s especially so on PCs with AMD Radeon graphics cards, thus far—check out our Radeon RX 480 review for hard benchmarks—but Nvidia’s GeForce cards enjoy DX12 benefits, too.

More and more games are starting to embrace DirectX 12. Seriously: If you’re a gamer, upgrade now. This isn’t coming to Windows 7 or 8.

Universal Windows apps

But DirectX 12 has come to the Xbox One. That’s because Microsoft’s console runs Windows 10 under the hood, and Windows 10 devices can all run universal Windows apps. One tangible benefit of the cross-device compatibility is the forthcoming Xbox Play Anywhere feature, which lets you buy a game once and play it on both Windows 10 and the Xbox One, as well as transfer saves and play multiplayer games across the two platforms. Nifty!

Play Anywhere is definitely the highlight so far, but universal Windows apps likewise morph to fit the screens of tablets, phones, and even Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset. The one caveat: Microsoft hasn’t yet convinced developers to embrace the Windows Store en masse.

The little extras

Windows 10 quietly eliminates many of the biggest little irritations present in previous versions of Windows. You can finally print to PDF natively now, and hovering your mouse over a background window lets you scroll that, rather than the in-focus program. Per-monitor display scaling eliminates visual oddities with multi-monitor setups. Cortana’s natural language search—“Hey Cortana, show my pictures from last Christmas”—can be a serious time-saver when used correctly.

All in all, these little touches add up to a big usability difference. Check out PCWorld’s story on the 12 obscure new Windows 10 features that eliminate everyday hassles for all the details.

It’s free!

C’mon. It’s a free upgrade until July 29. If you’re considering upgrading to Windows 10 at any point in the future, now’s the time to do it. Just be aware of what you’re giving in return.

It’ll keep getting better

Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels now that Windows 10 is out in the wild. A majorWindows 10 Anniversary Update is due to land on August 2, stuffed with new features and bug fixes, and Microsoft’s continually updating the operating system with the help of its legion of Windows Insider preview testers.

Windows 7, meanwhile, is solidly past the new-feature phase of life, though security updates will keep on a-rolling until 2020. Windows 8 is still ostensibly in its mainstream support phase through the beginning of 2018, but don’t expect to see any new goodies added there.

Counterpoint

That’s a pretty compelling list of reasons to upgrade to Windows 10—and the security boost might even push you into encouraging your non-geeky friends (you know, the ones always asking you for unofficial tech support) into accepting the upgrade, too. A safer environment for normal people is a safer world for everybody.

But again, there are some valid justifications for rejecting Microsoft’s offer. Most people should embrace the new operating system with open arms, but before you make the leap, be sure to read PCWorld’s list of the 10 reasons why you shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 10—especially if you’re using older hardware or software.

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The end is near: Say goodbye to the Windows 10 free upgrade

The deadline for a free Windows 10 upgrade is right around the corner. Find out what happens after the offer expires.

Windows 10-July29

Don’t look now, but July 29, 2016, is coming up fast. That is the one-year anniversary of the release of Windows 10, which means the ability to upgrade to the new operating system for FREE will soon expire. (If you are interested, you can take a look at the official countdown here.)

In a January 21, 2015, Windows Experience blog post titled The next generation of Windows: Windows 10, we learned that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade. Author Terry Myerson said:

Today was a monumental day for us on the Windows team because we shared our desire to redefine the relationship we have with you—our customers. We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.

A little over six months later, on July 28, 2015, Myerson penned another Windows Experience blog post, titled Windows 10 Free Upgrade Available in 190 Countries Today, in which he reiterated the free upgrade policy:

From the beginning, Windows 10 has been unique—built with feedback from five million Windows Insiders, delivered as a service with ongoing innovations and security updates, and offered as a free upgrade to genuine Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 customers.

If you’ve been reading articles by Woody Leonhard or Paul Thurrott in recent months, you know that Microsoft has been upping its game with the Get Windows 10, or GWX, program it built into Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. It really wants every Windows user everywhere to be running Windows 10.

Any holdouts—Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 users who have been sticking to their guns so far—have only a few more weeks to go before losing their chance to get Windows 10 for free.

In a recent Windows Experience blog post titled Windows 10 Now on 300 Million Active Devices – Free Upgrade Offer to End Soon, Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, said:

…we want to remind you that if you haven’t taken advantage of the free upgrade offer, now is the time. The free upgrade offer to Windows 10 was a first for Microsoft, helping people upgrade faster than ever before. And time is running out. The free upgrade offer will end on July 29 and we want to make sure you don’t miss out. After July 29th, you’ll be able to continue to get Windows 10 on a new device, or purchase a full version of Windows 10 Home for $119.

What will Windows 10 cost after July 29?

As Mehdi pointed out in his post, you will be able to purchase a full version of Windows 10 Home for $119.

But how much will Windows 10 Pro cost?

Well, if you head over to the Microsoft Store right now, you’ll find that you can purchase both Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro as a download or on a USB flash drive. Windows 10 Pro will cost you $199.99. And moving past the July 29 deadline for the free upgrade, it’s a pretty safe bet that prices will remain the same—especially since they’re the same price points that the full versions of Windows 8.1 Home and Pro sold for when that operating system was new.

Will there be upgrade versions of Windows 10 after July 29?

Since Microsoft provided free upgrades for a full year, I wonder if there will be upgrade packages for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users who decide to upgrade to Windows 10 after July 29. I suppose that it’s possible, but then again, maybe not. When Microsoft introduced Windows 8.1 packages, it offered only the full versions—there were no upgrade versions of Windows 8.1. With that in mind, it’s easy to speculate that this may also be the case with Windows 10.

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Microsoft Stream: The future of secure business video

Microsoft is previewing Stream, a new service for publishing and managing business videos. One day it will be the default video publishing system for Office 365.

MicrosoftStream

On July 18, 2016, Microsoft announced that a preview version of a new service called Microsoft Stream was available. Like most of you, I passed over the news with an indifferent “whatever” attitude. But later I realized that the news was actually more important than I had first thought.

Microsoft Stream fulfills a niche by providing a secure place to share videos created within, and for, businesses. By using a cloud-based service like this, businesses can reap the benefits of video communication without the threat of anonymous forum trolls trashing the brand or harassing employees.

Upload and forget it

While it is still a preview version, Microsoft Stream seems mostly ready for prime time. All you have to do is set up an account with a valid business email—One can use a personal domain email—and then log in. To test how easy Stream is to work with, you can make a 10-second video with a smartphone. Upload your video to Google Drive and then drag and drop it on the Stream portal website.

The web service processes the video while you give it a title and a brief description. Stream then asks if you are ready to publish and when you say yes, it publishes the video after a few seconds of grinding. It takes all of two minutes from start to finish and requires nothing more technical than knowing how to drag and drop a file.

Gone are the days of worrying about file format, aspect ratio, preferred playback applications, and all the other minutia we had to go through in years past to get a video published. You just take the video and then publish the video.

Video management

The key features of Microsoft Stream have to do with managing videos after they are published. Videos can be classified and placed into specific channels. Those channels can have their access restricted to certain individuals or certain groups, like a specific department, for instance. Access is controlled via the Azure Active Directory system.

According to the blog post, Microsoft plans to integrate Stream into the existing Office 365 Video system. Once the integration is complete, Microsoft Stream will be the default system for publishing video in an Office 365 environment.

There are plans in the works to add intelligent search to Stream by taking advantage of tools like audio transcription and face recognition. Developers are also working on ways to integrate Stream with other tools, like PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and SharePoint.

Bottom line

We are aware of Microsoft Bookings and how that application attempts to cut out other third-party developers by integrating appointment scheduling for small businesses with the standard Office 365 subscription. By offering Stream, a secure video publishing and management service, Microsoft is attempting to execute the same strategy for video publishing.

Microsoft Stream gives businesses a secure system for publishing videos. Through Stream, businesses control access and manage who can see what and when they can see it. And because it is all handled internally, problems with anonymous forum trolls are likely to be reduced.

It seems that Microsoft’s grand strategy is to become the only software company a business needs—ever. The glaring application that Office 365 is missing now is a double-entry accounting system that includes payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and the general ledger. Should we be looking for an announcement regarding those applications soon, Microsoft?

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Get an early look at the new Office 365 admin center

Tracking and reporting activity in Office 365 using the built-in admin tools is about to get much better. Here’s what the revamped admin center has to offer.

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Gathering usage information about Microsoft Office 365 in an enterprise is limited by the available admin tools. To make matters worse, as Microsoft adds new applications to Office 365, the ability to track if, and how, users were consuming the new features has been even more difficult. But with the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center in March 2016, those limitations are quickly disappearing.

Reporting

At first glance, you may think the main activity for any Office 365 admin is adding and subtracting employees from the active roster. But a good admin should be doing much more.

As the number of applications in Office 365 has grown substantially in recent years, the need to track all Office 365 activity has also grown. This need to track activity is especially important in larger enterprises where mishandled resources can raise overall costs significantly.

For example, knowing how many employees actually use Yammer on a weekly basis, and when, could help admins predict when resources will be taxed the most. Or tracking how users are actually using collaboration tools like Skype and Delve may lead an admin to conclude that more training on those applications is needed because the apps are underutilized. These are the sort of questions the new Office 365 admin center is looking to answer.

By simplifying the interface and creating ready-to-use dashboards, Microsoft is trying to streamline the reporting process. Tracking email activity and other peak usage data is just a few clicks away. And as the new Office 365 admin center is rolled out, there will also be tools admins can use to create custom reports.

Speaking from personal experience, the new admin dashboard interface is a welcome improvement. Navigation in the new admin center closely matches the familiar navigation system of other Office 365 apps. The previous admin center, with its heavy use of linked text, looked almost tacked on as an afterthought.

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Rollout

The new Office 365 admin center is rolling out in the United States right now and will be the default reporting experience very soon. The new center will roll out to other parts of the world in April 2016.

If you’re not ready for the change, you can roll back to the old admin system during this introductory phase. On the other hand, if you’re anxious for a change, you can click the Get A Sneak Peek link at the top of the old Office 365 admin center to force the installation of the new system.

Bottom line

For most users, administering Office 365 is someone else’s responsibility, but that does not diminish its importance to an enterprise.

A good admin should be able to track what activity is taking place within Office 365 and, more important, what activity is not taking place. Knowing who uses what applications for how long, and when, is essential information. Armed with that knowledge, administrators can determine how to better allocate resources and where new training for users may be required.

With the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center, Microsoft is using feedback received from its customers to create tools and dashboards that it hopes will make the tracking of vital activity data in Office 365 an easily achieved reality.

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Surface Book: Microsoft just made the PC cool again

The Microsoft Surface Book is the computer you always wanted to have but couldn’t. So now that it is here, will you buy it?

The latest line of Microsoft Surface personal computers is now available from both the virtual and the bricks-and-mortar Microsoft Store. By most accounts, the Surface Pro 4 and the flagship Surface Book offer impressive performance without sacrificing style or that illusive awe factor typically missing from PCs in general.

With the Surface Book in particular, Microsoft is attempting to change the narrative of the personal computer—to change perceptions in the marketplace. The Surface Book is an aspirational computer and it is intended to inspire desire in the overall PC and computing device market.

Strategic reasons

There are some solid strategic reasons why Microsoft has brought the Surface Book to market.

Giving OEMs a reference for their own hardware and increasing participation in Microsoft cloud services and the ecosystem that goes with it are certainly notable goals of the Surface Book.

But there is even more to it than that.

Hardware

It is important to understand the hardware inside the Microsoft Surface Book. These are the technical specifications of a powerful computing device. You do not buy a Surface Book so your kids can watch movies in the car while you run errands.

With a high resolution screen, SSD storage up to 1TB, up to 16GB RAM, an Intel I5 or I7 CPU, and a customized discreet GPU from Nvidia, the Surface Book is designed for performance and productivity. This is some serious computing power delivered in a small package.

Of course, that power comes at a premium price, but that is where the aspirational part of the strategy comes into play. Microsoft knows it will not sell millions upon millions of Surface Books. That is not its purpose. Instead, Microsoft wants millions upon millions of people to want a Surface Book—to aspire to own one someday.

Microsoft wants the Surface Book to be the notebook computer you would buy if money were not an issue. It wants the Surface Book to be a status symbol PC.

Marketing

This is a bold move by Microsoft and it goes hand-in-hand with the “PC does what?” marketing campaign produced in conjunction with its OEM partners like Dell and Lenovo. These companies are trying to make PCs cool again. They are trying to steal some of the thunder so often associated with Apple.

And while the “PC does what?” campaign gets mocked, mostly by fans of Apple, it is more effective than many believe. Remember the Mac versus PC commercials? People often mocked those as inaccurate oversimplifications of fact, but they still seemed to elevate the “cool” factor of the Mac. It didn’t matter what everyone thought of them; what mattered was the perception they produced.

Bottom line

The Microsoft Surface Book sets a high bar for every other notebook computer that comes to market. Microsoft has carefully crafted a powerful computer with hardware, features, and style no other company can currently match. In a single stroke, Microsoft has made owning a PC cool again. It has made the Windows 10 ecosystem cool again.

Let’s punctuate the point with anecdotal evidence. A number of people have spent much of their professional lives complaining about Microsoft and PCs. They have been working in the Apple’s ecosystem and hating every minute of it. They have been looking for more than what Apple offers for years now. The day Microsoft announced the Surface Book, they ordered one. They haven’t been this excited about buying a computer for a decade.

With this lineup of Surface products, Microsoft has changed the tide and established market momentum. It will be interesting to see how Google and Apple respond. We should see some serious competition now. It also wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence in Windows 10 mobile devices later this year. It looks to be an exciting time for consumers. Hang on to your hats.

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Office 365 gets Six new Excel Functions

Microsoft made several new updates to Office 365 in February, including the addition of six useful functions for Excel.

EcxelOffice365

When it comes to general updates to Microsoft Office 365, February 2016 was a fairly significant month. Microsoft rolled out numerous improvements to Office 365, like better pen annotation integration, the ability to pin documents to the Start menu, a new feature that allows images to be inserted into documents directly from the camera, and the best—adding more functions to Excel.

Six new functions

Using, combining, and creating formulas in Microsoft Excel is where true Excel gurus separate themselves from the pretenders and wannabes. For an Excel aficionado, the satisfaction of creating the perfect nested formula is second to none when it comes to Excel coding. So when Microsoft adds six new functions to Excel in one month it is a very big deal.

Of course, while there is great satisfaction when you figure out the perfect formula, a certain amount of despair also goes with it—because now you have to apply that complicated nested formula over and over again. This is where the six new functions are supposed to help.

The first updated functions are TEXTJOIN and CONCAT, and they are replacements for the old concatenate function, which gave the user the power to join strings of separate text into one cell. This comes up with addresses all the time—a common task for spreadsheets since they were invented.

In the past, the formula would look something like this:

=CONCATENATE(A3, “, “, B3, “, “, C3,”, “, D3, “, “, E3)

With the new TEXTJOIN formula, the same process would look something like this:

=TEXTJOIN(“, “, TRUE, A3:E3)

This is just one example of how these new functions are designed to simplify users’ lives when it comes to advanced Excel tasks.

The next two new functions are IFS and SWITCH, which provide an alternative to using the infamous series of nested IF functions. The old IF function was the mainstay for Excel coders looking to apply logic to sets of data. You know what I mean: If this is larger than this, than this; but if it is larger than this but less than that, then this, etc. The more nested IF functions the more complicated the formula and the more likely you are to make a mistake.

The last two new functions are MAXIFS and MINIFS. They are designed to supplement the MAX and MIN functions by allowing users to apply conditions to the maximum and minimum calculations and thereby filter results. In the past you may have had to use the IF function to create your filtered conditions. These new functions eliminate the need and make your life just that much simpler.

Office365

Bottom line

When Microsoft began trying to convince us that subscribing to Office 365 was a better idea than repurchasing new versions every few years, the ability to update the productivity suite regularly at no extra cost was one of the main selling points. As the new six functions illustrate, that was not a false promise.

These functions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Office 365 improvements. However, the problem with continuous updates to the software is that users have to try to keep up.

Even though there are some users out there who will keep using nested IF functions no matter what improvements come along, for example. But for the rest of us, it would seem to be worthwhile to pay attention to whatever improvements Microsoft rolls out each month. Because for better or worse, changes to Office 365 are going to keep coming.

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Yammer is on the way to Office 365: Are you ready?

Microsoft is activating Yammer for every Office 365 subscription. But is this one collaboration tool too many?

On February 2, 2016, Kirk Koenigsbauer announced in the official Microsoft Office 365 blog that Yammer is now being activated for every eligible Office 365 subscription. In a nutshell, that means Yammer is going to be another app on the Office 365 app list unless an admin specifically turns off access. Your enterprise should plan accordingly.

Yammer

For those of you unfamiliar with the product, Yammer bills itself as an enterprise internal social network. It mixes the typical chat messenger application with collaboration tools available in Office 365.

Similar to the Delve tool we looked at last week, Yammer can serve as the central hub for team collaboration. From within a Yammer discussion, teams can set up meeting appointments using Outlook, switch to a full-fledged Skype for Business video meeting, and access OneDrive for Business to create collaborative documents.

The initial rollout of Yammer took place on February 2, 2016; the rest of the rollout will take place in stages. The next release is March 1, 2016, and the last is April 1, 2016. According to the blog post, the first wave is for “Office 365 customers with a business subscription who purchased fewer than 150 licenses that includes Yammer and who have zero or one custom domains for Yammer.”

The second wave is for “Office 365 customers with a business subscription who purchased fewer than 5,000 licenses that includes Yammer.” Customers with an education subscription are not included.

The final wave is for “remaining customers with a business subscription and all customers with an education subscription.” For subscribers who have never had a Yammer account, the rollout will take place last, in April. Alas, that is the wave I’ll have to wait for.

Collaboration

Yammer is the latest, and perhaps the last, major teamwork collaboration app to be added to Office 365. In Microsoft’s vision of a mobile-first, cloud-first enterprise, teams collaborate across distances using shared documents, video conferencing, and applications that tie it all together in one virtual location.

YammerForOffice365

With the addition of Yammer, Microsoft is offering several tools teams can use to manage and organize their collaboration activities. Teams can use Yammer, Delve, Groups, Sites, SharePoint, and OneNote to manage their shared conversations and documents across the enterprise. One of those tools should be able to satisfy even the most persnickety of teams.

Bottom line

But then again, that may be where we run into problems. One could argue that there are too many collaboration tools available in Microsoft Office 365. While all these wonderful choices may seem good at first glance, it is possible that subscribers may become overwhelmed.

Microsoft’s idea that teams can choose the best tool for them or for the project they are working on sounds all well and good, but it does still require someone to make an important initial decision. For some people, making a decision that will affect a project from start to finish can be a daunting task.

In the long run, it may be beneficial for organizations to establish guidelines for when each of the collaboration tools works best. They may even decide to block some of the tools from use altogether in favor of a recommended best practice.

Having myriad collaboration tools is generally a good thing, but it might help move things along if the enterprise establishes some well thought out guidelines.

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Now Microsoft Office 365 tackles ‘fake CEO’ email spoofing attacks

Microsoft is rolling out a host of new email security features for Office 365 later this quarter, as it looks to thwart hackers and criminals.

‘Insider spoofing’ or faking the CEO’s email address to trick the CFO into transferring millions to criminal bank accounts is big business. Now Microsoft is using big data and reputation filters to try and squish the threat.

According to the FBI, between October 2013 and August 2015, 7,066 US businesses have fallen prey to ‘business email compromise’, netting criminals an estimated $747m.

Non-US victims lost a further $51m over the period, with the FBI estimating a 270 percent increase in identified victims since January 2015, when it first released figures about the threat category.

As Microsoft notes, when a corporate email domain is spoofed, it makes it hard for existing filters to identify the bogus email as malicious.

However, Microsoft reckons it has achieved a 500 percent improvement in counterfeit detection using a blend of big data, strong authentication checks, and reputation filters in Exchange Online Protection for Office 365.

It’s also rolling out new phishing and trust notifications to indicate whether an email is from a known sender or if a message is from an untrusted source, and therefore could be a phishing email.

The company is also promising a faster email experience as it vets attachments for malware and new tools to auto-correct messages that are mis-classified as spam. The aim is to boost defences without impairing end-user productivity.

Malicious email attachments remain a popular way for attackers to gain a foothold in an organization and, as RSA’s disastrous SecurID breach in 2011 showed, a little social engineering can go a long way to ensuring someone opens it.

Microsoft’s new attachment scanner, called Dynamic Delivery of Safe Attachments, looks to reduce delays as it checks attachments for potential threats.

Currently it captures suspicious looking attachments in a sandbox with a ‘detonation chamber’ where it analyses it for malware in a process takes five to seven minutes.

Microsoft hasn’t figured out a faster way to analyse the attachment, but instead of holding up the email as it conducts the scan, it will send the body of the email with a placeholder attachment. If the attachment is deemed safe, it will replace the placeholder and if not, the admin can filter out the attachment.

The feature is part of Microsoft’s Office 365 Exchange Online Protection and Advanced Threat Protection services.

The company is also tackling false-positive spam, or legitimate messages that are mis-identified as spam, and vice versa, with a new feature called Zero-hour Auto Purge, which allows admins to “change that verdict”.

“If a message is delivered to your inbox and later found to be spam, Zero-hour Auto Purge moves that message from the inbox to the spam folder; the reverse is true for messages misclassified as spam,” Microsoft notes.

Microsoft is testing this approach with 50 customers and says it will be rolled out for all Exchange Online Protection global clients in the first quarter of 2016.

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Category: Microsoft Office 2016

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