Microsoft has withdrawn the released Windows Update KB3114409 because it causes Outlook to start in Safe Mode. This loads the email client without customizations and plugins. Fortunately it can be easily fixed.

The patch was actually released to stop Outlook from starting in Safe Mode, but it appears something didn’t go the right way. Microsoft has decided to withdraw the update for now.

Users affected by the update can easily stop Outlook from starting in safe mode by uninstalling the KB3114409 update.

This can be done this way: Go to your Control Panel. Go to ‘Programs and Features’ and left click ‘View installed updates’. Find KB3114409. Once you’ve found the appropriate update, click ‘Uninstall’.

(Tip: copy/paste KB3114409 and enter it in the search field at the top right.)

After a reboot of the computer Outlook will no longer start in safe mode.

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To achieve its goal of getting one billion people onto Windows 10, Microsoft is getting more forceful in how it pushes Windows 7 and 8.1 users towards its new OS.

Microsoft wants Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018 – and its tactics for hitting that ambitious goal are about to get more aggressive.

From next year, Microsoft will be more direct in pushing Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade to its latest OS, in an attempt to bolster the 110 million-strong Windows 10 userbase.

Here’s how Microsoft is about to crank up the pressure to make the switch.

1. Windows 10 will automatically begin installing itself

From “early next year”, Microsoft will change the status of the free Windows 10 upgrade so it is classified as a Recommended Update.

Given that most home machines are set up to install Recommended Updates automatically, the change to Windows 10’s update status will lead to most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines beginning the upgrade.

However, Microsoft says that before Windows 10 is installed users will need to manually confirm the installation, giving them a chance to pull out.

Business users should be able to prevent the upgrade from automatically starting using tools such as Windows Server Update Services.

For those on metered connections, Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive VP of the Windows and Devices Group, said people “have the option of turning off automatic updates” before going on to say that such a move is unwise because of “the constant risk of internet threats”.

Those who don’t like the new OS will have 31 days to roll back to their previous version of Windows. To go back, select “Start Button->Settings->Update and Security->Recovery and Uninstall Windows 10”.

2. Upgrade notifications will be made more obvious

Despite Microsoft sticking a ‘Get Windows 10’ icon on the taskbar of most Windows 7 desktops, many customers apparently still can’t figure out how to initiate the upgrade.

Myerson says since launching Windows 10 the number one complaint has been ‘How do I get my upgrade?’.

To address the difficulty some users are having, Myerson said Microsoft will change “our notifications to be more approachable and hopefully clear, and sometimes fun”.

3. Upgrades will happen immediately

The process of initiating the upgrade to Windows 10 has also been streamlined.

In the weeks after Windows 10’s launch earlier this year, Microsoft required users to first reserve a Windows 10 upgrade, which would then be installed at a later date.

Microsoft has now replaced that two-step process with an immediate upgrade. Users clicking on the ‘Get Windows 10’ icon will now be given the option to ‘Upgrade Now’ to begin the upgrade process straightaway.

4. Simpler upgrade from unsanctioned copies of Windows

Myerson admits surprise at how many people running copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 that have not been authenticated then go on to buy Genuine copies of Windows 10.

Based on this experience, Microsoft plans to make it a “one-click” process for people running unsanctioned copies of the OS to “get Genuine” via the Windows Store or by entering an activation code bought elsewhere. The offer will be trialled in the US and, if successful, may be extended to other countries.

5. Upgrading multiple machines to Windows 10 will be easier

Those looking to upgrade several Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines to Windows 10 will soon find the process gets more straightforward.

Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool is used to create an image that can be run off a DVD or USB stick to upgrade qualifying machines to Windows 10.

According to Myerson, you will soon be able to use the tool to create a single image that will allow any number of 32-bit or 64-bit, Home or Pro machines to be upgraded and which will also allow for clean installs “wherever you have a Windows license”.

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If you were still thinking about placing an order for a new Microsoft Surface Book, then you will have to look somewhere other than the Microsoft store.

While there doesn’t seem to be a massive supply issue with the new Apple iPhone 6s smartphone, in the past we have seen Apple products sell out quickly and deliveries move from days, to weeks, to months. It seems that Microsoft’s new Surface Book may be generating more interest than planned.

Last night I went to the online Microsoft Store to place an order for a base model Surface Book. I found that the only available status when choosing that model was, “Email me when available.” I jumped through the other four models and discovered the same thing. It seems Microsoft is sold out of pre-order stock for all models at its online store.

We reached out to Microsoft to try to find out more about stock status and when buyers could expect to place pre-orders. I also asked if there will be units in Microsoft retail stores on launch day, 26 October. Given that units are sold out online, we may even see people queue up for possible stock in stores.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement, “We’ve seen strong demand for Surface Book and have sold out of pre-order supply for October 26 availability. We will have limited quantities of Surface Book available in store on October 26 and will be updating online availability with new product ship dates soon.”

UPDATE: Microsoft updated its store and is no allowing customers to pre-order the five Surface Book variations. What you will find instead of an email me when available button is updated delivery expectations, ranging from five to six weeks for three models and seven to eight weeks for two models.

While I was disappointed that I couldn’t purchase a Surface Book through Microsoft directly, I found that Best Buy and Amazon will also be selling this new computer. Best Buy did not appear to be taking pre-orders, but I was able to purchase the Intel Core i5, 8GB, 128GB model from Amazon for $1,499.

The Amazon website does not appear to carry the 256GB i5 without dGPU or 256GB i7 models. The 256GB i5 with dGPU looks to be the only other model available for pre-order. The 512GB i7 model is on the site as an option, but redirects you to the Microsoft Store for purchase and it’s not avaialable there.

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Microsoft began rolling out Office 2016 for Windows on September 22. Since then, there have been a lot of questions around timing and installation techniques from those attempting to move to the latest version of Microsoft’s Office suite.

It turns out that not everyone has been able to upgrade to the latest release this week, in spite of Microsoft declaring the suite generally available. Instead, as many have discovered, the Office 2016 rollout is a staggered one, and one which has resulted in some OneDrive, Skype for Business and other app and service installation and compatibility issues.

While Microsoft officials did say a week ago that the company would be moving to a servicing/branch model with Office 2016 similar to the one the Windows 10 team is using, details on exactly how that would play out for Office users were scarce. But thanks to Microsoft pages and KB articles — we now know more.

It turns out anyone in the Office 365 First Release program was able to get the latest Office 2016 apps for Windows as of this week. The same is true of those on the existing Office 365 Small Business Premium, Business and/or Business Premium — but only for those who are buying new subscriptions, according to the chart from a Microsoft community answers post, embedded above. Automatic updates to Office 2016 for those on these three plans won’t begin until the fourth quarter of 2016..

Just to add a little more complexity to this already complex set of rules, Microsoft is in the midst of replacing its Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Busines plans with three new ones. The three: Office 365 Business, Business Essentials and Business Premium. Microsoft has pushed the suggested migration date kick-off for these new plans back from October 1 to December 1, 2015, The reason for the date change: “The renewal experience will be best for users who have the latest version of Office,” meaning Office 2016.

Those with Office 365 ProPlus SKUs — meaning Office 365 Enterprise, Midsize and Education — are on the Current Branch for Business. This means these users cannot upgrade to the new Office 2016 for Windows bits right now unless the administrators change the update branch to be used by some/all of their users to Current Branch.

“For Office 365 ProPlus subscribers, administrators can opt to upgrade by manually rolling out to their users with Office deployment tools available today, September 22. Automatic updates for Office 365 ProPlus customers will begin early next year,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed when I asked.

Here are some more links that might help those interested in making the move to Office 2016:

• How to upgrade to Office 2016 if you have an Office 365 Home, Personal or University subscription.
• How to upgrade to Office 2016 if you are on an Office 365 for business plan.
• How to upgrade to Office 2016 if you already bought Office 2013 (or an earlier version of Office) as a one-time purchase: There is no upgrade option. You need to either subscribe to an Office 365 plan which includes the rights to the Office apps or buy a standalone copy of Office 2016. If you are considering moving to Windows 10, Microsoft is offering a50 percent off deal on an Office 365 Personal subscription.
• What should you do if you see the “We need to remove some older apps” error when you are trying to upgrade to Office 2016: If you have Project, Visio, InfoPath, or SharePoint Designer, certain versions of these apps cannot coexist with the Office 2016 version of Office 365.
• If Skype for Business is removed from your PC when you move to Office 2016, here are workarounds for getting it back.
• There’s an Office 2016 Deployment tool for customizing and managing Office 2016 click-to-run deployments
• Microsoft’s “Office 2016 Problems and Solutions and Frequently Asked Questions” page.

Microsoft made the Office 2016 for Windows release available to MSDN subscribers on September 22. Volume licensees will have access to the new release via the Volume License Servicing Center (VLSC) as of October 1.

DreamSpark users got access to Office 2016 on September 22. Microsoft Action Pack and MPN subscribers will get access on October 1. And Home Use Rights for Office 2016 for Windows and Mac, both, will be available as of October 7, according to Microsoft.

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Microsoft Office 2016 is now available for deployment in your enterprise. There are several options to choose from, but which one is right for you?

As of September 22, 2015, the official version for Microsoft’s productivity and collaboration suite has been upgraded to Office 2016. For consumers and small businesses who subscribe to Office 365, the upgrade to Office 2016 will be deployed automatically. For IT administrators working in enterprise environments, however, the deployment of Microsoft Office 2016 is a bit more complicated.

The plan

How IT admins will chose to deploy Office 2016 will be determined, at least in part, by how they subscribe to the productivity suite in the first place.

For example, if you subscribe under the Office 365 Pro Plus plan, your enterprise can continue to receive feature and security updates on a monthly basis as you have been. Microsoft has dubbed this always up-to-date deployment process as “Current Branch.” Under this plan, your enterprise will always have deployed the most current version of Microsoft Office. The Current Branch for this month released on September 22, so congratulations Current Branch subscribers, you have all the latest Office 2016 apps available.

However, the Current Branch is not the only option for enterprise deployments. If you choose, you can opt to deploy Office 2016 using what Microsoft calls “Current Branch for Business.” This method is particularly useful for enterprises who require more compatibility testing for new features.

Under the Current Branch for Business plan, enterprises will still receive monthly security updates, but they’ll only receive new feature updates three times per year. The first Current Branch for Business build will be deployed in February 2016, and it will include the September 22, 2015, features available under the Current Branch plan, along with any after-the-fact security updates associated with those features.

It’s important to note that the Current Branch for Business plan is the default plan for Office 365 Pro Plus subscribers.

What’s in a name?

As is typical, Microsoft’s naming scheme for Office 2016 deployment lacks imagination and descriptive clues about what to expect from each method, but the concept is relatively straightforward. If compatibility is not a problem in your enterprise, you should probably opt to use the Current Branch method for deployment.

Enterprises with a volume licensing agreement can download Office 2016 from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center starting October 1, 2015.

However, if your enterprise has issues with compatibility that require extensive testing before deploying new features, then you’ll want to keep using the Current Branch for Business plan.

No matter which plan you choose to use, if your enterprise is of significant size, you’ll likely want to use the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to help control network traffic.

Bottom line

There are many new features in Microsoft Office 2016 that may be beneficial to users in your enterprise, including Skype for Business, Clutter for Outlook, better cloud collaboration tools for all apps, real time co-authoring in Word, and built-in business intelligence tools. This is a significant update to Office, so the decision on when and how to deploy it is not a trivial matter.

Microsoft has provided numerous tools and options to help IT admins deploy Office 2016, so there is really no excuse not to find a way to get it to your users. After all, you’re subscribing to Office 365, so you’re paying for Office 2016 apps whether you deploy them or not. Therefore, you might as well let your users take advantage of the latest features. It only makes sense.

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With a quick glance at your Windows 10 laptop, you’ll be able to unlock it — without entering a password.

Microsoft introduced the latest new feature for Windows 10, called Windows Hello. The security tool will let you access your PC through facial recognition, an iris scan or a read of your fingerprint.

But before you get ready for your closeup, you’ll need get some special equipment — most PCs don’t come with biometric scanners installed (though some do). Windows Hello is primarily targeted at businesses and government agencies.

Microsoft opted not to rely on your webcam for facial recognition because the photos it captures are not terribly secure, and they’re easy to spoof. Instead, Microsoft got infrared cameras to do facial recognition for Windows Hello.

Facial recognition is possible on a low-grade camera. Google allows its Android phones to be unlocked with facial recognition, but the company warns that someone with a photo of you — or even someone who looks like you — will be able to unlock your phone too.

With the proper tools, faces, irises and fingerprints are possible to spoof, but it’s not easy — someone’s got to really want to break in to your PC to go through the trouble.

Microsoft opted for more robust security in Windows 10, because it wants to meet strict standards that companies and government agencies impose for secure logins. Microsoft said Windows Hello has a 1 in 100,000 false accept rate, which is very high. It’s a lot safer than a password, which, as we know, can easily be forgotten, lost, stolen or hacked.

Though it’s not necessarily aimed at the average PC buyer, consumers will be able to use the Windows Hello feature too.

Microsoft promised “plenty of exciting new Windows 10 devices to choose from which will support Windows Hello.” And if your PC already has a fingerprint reader, you’ll be able to login with a fingerprint scan.

Passport: Windows 10 will also support another new security feature, codenamed “Passport,” which lets you login to participating websites, apps or networks without a password. Microsoft said the list of sites and apps that support Passport is growing, but it didn’t say how many participate.

Microsoft is trying to position Passport as the end of passwords. Since you never enter a password to enter a website, “there is no shared password stored on their servers for a hacker to potentially compromise,” says Microsoft boldly in its press release.

But that’s not quite true. Passwords will still exist. Even if you can login to your email via Passport from your work PC, you’ll still need a password to login from your iPad. So passwords aren’t going away anytime soon — and they’ll still be stored on email providers’ servers, which means hackers could potentially still grab them in a cyberattack.

The primary way that Passport ensures that you’re you is through Windows Hello. Oddly, however, you can also enter a PIN into Passport, which is significantly less secure than a password.

Still, it’s about time that something replaces passwords, and Hello and Passport are good starts.

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Microsoft released a free app for capturing, annotating, and explaining screenshots.

In late August 2015, Microsoft released a free screen capture and annotation application called Snip (Figure A). But the twist in the story is the fact that Snip is not part of some master strategic plan.

Figure A

Snip

While the name is a bit confusing, Snip is not the same thing as the improved Snipping Tool that comes free with Windows 10. The Snipping Tool will capture screenshots, but it does not have any annotation features.

Snip, on the other hand, is a free tool developed through a Microsoft Garage project that allows users to capture screenshots and then annotate them (Figure B). With the Snip app, users can draw on their captured screenshots using a software pen, which is available in various colors and sizes.

Figure B

Snip can also record the annotation, and your vocal description of it, to create a short video that users can share as a URL or as an MP4 video (Figure C). These features make Snip very useful for creating and sharing short instructional videos.

Figure C

Cultural shift

The important thing to note about Snip is the way it was developed and released. Under the Garage program, Microsoft employees are encouraged to work on projects outside of their official duties. The idea is to create an environment where employees can experiment, innovate, and exercise their creativity.

Releasing an app like Snip in beta form to the general public indicates a shift in attitude when it comes to app development at Microsoft. Snip has been released without worrying about whether it will generate a revenue stream or ever make a profit. As far as I can tell, there are no expectations regarding Snip and how it fits into the overall corporate strategy.

Snip is just a nice little program that Microsoft thinks people will find useful, and they’d appreciate some feedback on how to make it even better. No promises, no expectations, no quid pro quo. Microsoft is trying hard not to be the stodgy old software company anymore.

Snip also fits in well with Microsoft’s major theme for Office 365, which postulates that a modern productive workforce needs better collaboration tools. When you consider recent app releases like Edge, Sway, and now Snip, you can begin to see where Microsoft is heading.

If you need to communicate an idea in a simple but effective way, Microsoft is saying it has the tool you seek. It would not  be a surprise if Snip become an integrated part of Office 365 in the near future.

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Microsoft’s Office 2016 suite for Windows 7, 8 and 10 PCs and tablets is available since September 22, 2015. Here’s what’s new and what’s still to come for Office users.

Microsoft made a first public preview of the suite — which runs on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 PCs and laptops — back in March of 2015. Testers had been working with private previews of the suite since 2014.

The full Office for Windows 2016 suite includes new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Project, Visio and Access.

There are not a lot of major new features in this release. Microsoft’s main focus with the new version of Office for Windows has been on adding team-collaboration functionality. Among some of the new features in the suite are coauthoring for Word, PowerPoint and OneNote; real-time typing in Word; new integrated Power BI publishing functionality in Excel; and updated search and navigational capabilities in Outlook.

Users who subscribe via Office 365 consumer and/or business plans which include rights to the Office apps also get will get additional, supplemental services and features, including Microsoft’s Sway digital-storytelling app/service; new Office 365 Groups functionality; and more.

As is the case with Windows 10, Microsoft is planning to fill out some of the partially baked Office 2016 features in the suite with regular updates in the coming months. Microsoft is still working on improving and syncing its OneDrive online-storage service. The promised new sync clients for Windows and Mac are due later this year. Built-in coauthoring for the other Office 2016 apps beyond Word is also still in the works. And Enterprise Data Protection, a security feature that Microsoft has promised for Windows 10, also will be coming for Office 2016 for Windows in early 2016, and the Office Mobile apps later this year, company officials said.

Starting with the Office 2016 for Windows release, Microsoft is moving to a new servicing model for Office 365 which is similar to the one it has put in place for Windows 10, with different servicing “branches” providing users with new Office features and fixes on a regular basis.

While on the subject of dates, here’s what Microsoft officials are saying in terms of availability for Office 2016 for Windows (and other related Office apps and services).

The Office 2016 apps are available in 40 languages starting today. Office 365 subscribers can choose to download manually the new Office 2016 apps as part of their subscription starting today. Automatic updates of the Office 2016 apps will begin rolling out to consumer and small business subscribers in October 2015, and to commercial customers early next year. Office 2016 is also available today as a one-time purchase for both PCs and Macs.

Update:

A Microsoft spokesperson said MSDN subscribers will have access to both Office 2016 for Mac and Windows today, starting at about 9 am PT/noon ET. Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) availability for Office 2016 for Windows will be October 1. (VLSC customers got Office 2016 for Mac in August.)

Office 365 Planner, the lightweight project-management service (formerly codenamed “Highlander”), which Microsoft is building into its Office 365 business subscriptions, will be available in preview to Office 365 First Release customers starting next quarter. And GigJam — a new task-completion service which Microsoft demonstrated earlier this summer — is in private preview as of today, and will be available to Office 365 business subscribers in 2016.

Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac are Microsoft’s two fully-featured Office desktop suites. The company also offers a variety of universal’ and/or mobile Office mobile apps for iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phones and Windows PCs and tablets.

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One in 10 web-facing computers is still running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, according to a report – despite the OS no longer being patched by Microsoft.

Hundreds of thousands of computers are still using the Windows Server 2003 operating system – despite it no longer being patched against hacks.

Internet services found more than 600,000 web-facing computers, together hosting millions of websites, still running the OS that Microsoft ceased supporting in July this year.

The end of support means the OS no longer receives patches against viruses, spyware and other malware that might seek to exploit the system. The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team warns that those running Windows Server 2003 risk “loss of confidentiality, integrity, and or availability of data, system resources and business assets”.

Despite these risks, 175 million websites – what it terms “one-fifth of the internet” – are hosted on machines running Windows Server 2003. The OS also appears to be in use on computers sitting behind web servers for a further 1.7 million sites.

Together accounting for 55 percent, the US and China are home to the bulk of the machines running Windows Server 2003, with 166,000 in the US and 169,000 in China.

The unsupported nature of Windows Server 2003 makes it a tempting target for attackers – which is why it is important for firms to switch away from the OS as soon as possible.

“As time goes by, there will be some vulnerabilities that affect Windows Server 2003 and if those allow things like remote code execution and so on, we’re likely to see a massive number of web-facing computers and a much larger number of websites getting hacked. These could then go on to distribute malware and even be made into botnets to enable other attacks.

“Of course, because Windows Server 2003 is now unsupported, those people who try to find vulnerabilities might even now be particularly focusing on this platform because they know it won’t be fixed.”

Windows Server 2012 R2 is the most recent version of Microsoft’s server-targeted operating system – with a variety of options for licensing. In part, the cost of moving to a more recent Microsoft OS for the proportion of machines still running Windows Server 2003.

“[That proportion] is over 10 percent of all web-facing computers, and shows the true potential cost of migration,” the report states.

Moving a server to a Linux-based OS can be difficult for organisations that have traditionally used Windows Server, Mutton said, particularly if they rely heavily on scripts written for ASP.NET, Microsoft’s server-side web application framework.

The report lists several major firms and banks still running Windows Server 2003 machines, including UK bank NatWest, part of the larger publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

However, while Microsoft is no longer supporting the OS for most users, it will offer fixes for the OS to organisations willing to pay for a custom-support deal.

Such a deal was recently struck by the US Navy, which agreed to pay at least $9m to Microsoft to provide ongoing support for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003. A spokesman for RBS said NatWest is also covered by a custom support deal with Microsoft that began in March this year.

Firms without such a custom support deal in place that use Windows Server 2003 to serve sites that handle financial information could be in breach of data security standards, which carries out security testing and assessments for companies.

The requirement under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 6.2 that “all system components and software to be protected from known vulnerabilities by installing vendor-supplied

“Many merchants still using Windows Server 2003 are likely to be noncompliant and could face fines, increased transaction fees, reputational damage, or other potentially disastrous penalties such as cancelled accounts.”

Microsoft advises several options for machines still running Windows Server 2003 – including switching to Windows Server 2012 R2 or its cloud platform Microsoft Azure. It provides an interactive Windows Server 2003 Migration Planning Assistant.

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Windows 10 is now available as a free update. Here is what you can expect when you say “yes” to the update.

Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of the upgrade process while upgrading Windows 8 machine to Windows 10.

Launch Windows 10 upgrade through Windows Update

Look for the Update screen in Windows 8 and click the Check for Updates link. When the check is over, you will see the screen shown in Figure A.

As you can see, it is a 2699.0 MB download. Click the Get Started button and then the screen shown in Figure B will appear.

You may be able to get Windows 10 via a free update, but it still requires that you agree to a license/user agreement.

The next screen (Figure C) is very important. Updating takes about 2 hours depending upon the machine. If you cannot afford to be off your computer for that long, it may be a good idea to schedule a time when you can.

Installation process

After you start the update process, your PC will immediately restart. From that point on you will just have to wait for the update to finish. During update the screen gets blank for over an hour, so please don’t panic and turn your PC during this seeming lack of activity.

Your PC may also restart several times during the update, but eventually you will reach a screen that asks if you want to do an Express Configuration or a Custom Configuration. Express configuration will be the best choice for most people.

Note that the update does take a bit of bandwidth, so it might be more efficient to update one PC at a time.

When the entire update procedure is complete, you will be presented with the Windows 10 desktop or tablet interface depending on your device as you can see in Figure D.

There are new versions of OneDrive and the Snipping Tool in Windows 10. Of course, there is also the new web browser, Microsoft Edge, too.

Get Windows 10 without using Windows Update

If you would like to get Windows 10 without going through the update process, for a clean install for example, then you will have to download the Windows 10 ISO file.

If you have a Windows Vista or Windows XP PC you would like to update, you have to purchase Windows 10. Windows 10 Home will cost you $119, while Windows 10 Pro will cost $199.

As of July 29, 2015, most new devices will be available with either Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, which can be upgraded to Windows 10 for free. If your PC is more than a few years old, it might make more sense to spend money on a new device rather than to update an old one.

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