Microsoft continues to build out Windows 10 – with a bumper crop of new features announced at its Build conference last week.

These enhancements will be pushed to to Windows 10 users over the coming months, with many arriving in summer when the OS will get a major upgrade dubbed the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition.

Here are the key upgrades heading to Windows 10.

The write stuff

Using a digital pen to write and scribble on the screen of Windows 10 PCs and tablets will get easier.

In a boost to devices that support such pens, such as the Microsoft’s Surface tablet, the OS’ new Windows Ink feature will allow users to jot down notes on the screen without unlocking the device.

Windows Ink will also allow users to write messages on sticky notes and, if appropriate, have them automatically translated into calendar appointments and reminders.

Support for Windows Ink in Microsoft Office, Maps, the Edge browser and other apps will allow users to draw, write and annotate using their pen. Windows Ink will make using the pen in Office more satisfying than it currently is, for example tidying up highlighted marks on documents so they neatly align with text.

Windows 10 will also gain the Ink Workspace, a hub for launching apps that support writing and sketching using the Surface Pen.

Ink everywhere

Support for drawing, writing and annotating using digital pens will likely come to many apps.

Microsoft says that support for Microsoft Ink will be easily added to Universal Windows Platform apps, requiring just two lines of XAML code.

Digital ruler

It sounds simple, but the new on-screen ruler should prove to be a useful addition for those who want to draw straight lines using a digital pen.

Smarter Cortana

The attraction of a virtual assistant is the simplicity with which they allow you to carry out tasks.

To ease the process of using Windows 10’s Cortana, the voice-controlled assistant will no longer require you to log into Windows, with users able to make a note, play music or set a reminder from the lock screen.

Cortana will also become more proactive and make suggestions based on a user’s past behaviour – offering to order lunch or to arrange transportation.

More apps will also be able to use Cortana to automatically complete tasks for users or to carry out actions based on context, such as the user’s current location or time of day.

Windows Hello comes to apps and the web

Windows 10 already lets you log into the OS using your face.

The anniversary edition will extend this biometric log-in to Windows apps and websites via Microsoft Edge. As with the OS, users will be able to authenticate their identity using a facial, iris or fingerprint scan.

Another new feature will allow users to unlock a PC running Windows 10 Enterprise Edition by tapping a Windows Hello-enabled phone, although Microsoft has said the feature will only be available on “select premium phones”.

Android app notifications on Windows 10

In future, notifications on Android devices will be able to show on Windows 10 PCs.

Any notification popping up on the Android notification panel can, via the Cortana Android app, also appear as a notification on a linked Windows 10 desktop.

Microsoft demoed the ability at its recent Build conference for developers.

Browser extensions

Microsoft’s Edge browser will soon gain support for extensions.

Extensions are small programs that can be downloaded to add new functionality to a browser, and are already found in Chrome, Firefox and other browsers today.

Support for extensions has already been added to Edge for those testing pre-release builds of Windows 10 under the Insider program.

The first extensions to be supported by Edge are Microsoft Translator, an extension that automatically translates pages in over 50 different languages, an extension to augment mouse gestures support, and a preview version of the Reddit Enhancement Suite.

Microsoft promises more extensions will be added later this year, including AdBlock, LastPass and Evernote.

Pinned browser tabs

Microsoft is also adding to Edge the ability to pin your favorite sites and web apps so they always have a tab open in the browser.

Updated Maps app

The Maps app has several new features, as well as UI and performance improvements.

Additions include one-tap access to search and directions, the ability to view multiple searches and directions at the same time, labels for search results on the map and turn-by-turn directions read by Cortana.

The improved app is available now to those testing Windows 10 under the Insider program.

Access Linux command-line tools in Windows

More one for developers, Microsoft is also bringing the ability to run the Bash shell to Windows.

The Bash shell is a command line interpreter that is available on many different Linux distributions, as well as Mac OS X.

The shell includes a host of tools that allow power users to carry out and orchestrate complex chains of commands.

Bash will be available via a Universal Windows Platform app, which will provide an image of the Linux distribution Ubuntu and run on the Windows 10 desktop.

Users will be able to use the Bash shell to download and install programs from the command line, as they do from inside Ubuntu. Microsoft says Ubuntu software will run as fast in the Windows app as it does natively, thanks to a software subsystem for handling Linux system calls.

Microsoft has described the app as offering a developer toolset. While it has access to the files on the Windows PC, the app only provides access to a command line — not a graphical desktop — and reportedly has limits on what it can be used for, such as not being able to run a server.

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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.

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.

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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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.

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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Next year will mark the first full year of release for Microsoft’s new OS. A look at what’s in store for Windows 10 next year.

Windows 10 was described as the “last version of Windows” – an OS that would evolve over time rather than be superceded.

In the few months since Windows 10’s launch Microsoft says it has been installed on more than 110 million devices. But just what lies in store for the OS in 2016, how will it get better and what new devices will it find its way onto?

1. Windows 10 will begin automatically installing on your old machine

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users and Microsoft is getting increasingly aggressive about moving these users to the new OS.

From next year Windows 10 will automatically begin installing on most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines.

Users will still need to confirm the installation manually for it to continue. However, if they choose not to proceed it’s unclear if they can cancel it altogether, with Jeremy Korst, general manager of the Windows and Devices team at Microsoft, saying only that “the customer will have the ability to delay it for some period”.

If users do upgrade but don’t like Windows 10 they will have 31 days to roll back to their previous OS.

The automatic installation, the result of Microsoft changing the status of the Windows 10 upgrade to a Recommended update, will be preceded by increasingly insistent nag messages to upgrade. These notices are already being shown to some Windows users and have been criticised for not offering an easy opt-out.

2. Microsoft Edge will get extensions

Windows 10 launched with Microsoft Edge, a new browser that cast off a lot of the legacy code holding Internet Explorer back.

However, while speedy and capable on paper, the browser suffers from its share of bugs and is missing support for extensions, a key feature found in competitors such as Chrome and Firefox.

Microsoft will rectify this omission “early next year” when Korst said it will add extensions to Edge in test builds of Windows 10, ahead of being made generally available.

Extensions are small software programs, typically written using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, that augment the functionality of a browser.

Earlier this month, Microsoft accidentally published a website announcing the introduction of extensions to test builds of Windows 10. The site, which was taken down, referenced extensions for Pinterest and Reddit.

Microsoft originally planned to add support for extensions to Edge this year.

3. Windows 10 will blur the virtual and real world

Microsoft’s Windows 10-powered augmented reality headset HoloLens will ship to developers in the first quarter of 2016.

The augmented reality headset places 3D virtual images in the wearer’s vision so that they appear part of the real world – for instance, a Minecraft landscape sits on a coffee table or a Skype video sits on the wall.

After trying a demo of the headset this week, TechRepublic senior writer Dan Patterson said that though the headset had a limited “field of vision”, “the 3D animations are smooth, easy to interactive with, and result in only marginal eyestrain”.

The HoloLens doesn’t come cheap, with the developer kit priced at $3,000 – although Microsoft says this early release is meant for developers and commercial customers.

Although HoloLens has obvious consumer and gaming uses, Microsoft is stressing its use for business and is working with NASA, AutoDesk, Volvo, Dassault Aviation, Case Western Reserve University, and other large organisations to develop applications for it.

4. More security for enterprise

The coming year will also see some notable new features added to the enterprise version of Windows 10.

Key among these additions is Enterprise Data Protection, which will allow companies to separate work and personal data on devices using containerisation file techniques. It will also encrypt data as it moves around the organisation – helping to ensure that information isn’t accessed by the wrong people.

The feature will be rolled out to people testing Windows under the Insider Program “early next year”.

5. Testers will get a peek at even earlier builds

Those testing early releases of Windows 10 under the Windows Insider Program will be able to get earlier access to new features from January next year.

Those who choose to be in the “fast” ring of the Insider Program will receive builds of Windows 10 more frequently in 2016, according to Microsoft VP Gabe Aul.

The price of testers getting their hands on early builds more regularly will be that this software will likely include more bugs, he said. Those testers who prefer stability to early access should opt for the “slow” ring, he said.

6. Cortana will be everywhere

Microsoft is planning a major upgrade to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone, next year – with reports the upgrade will put Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana at the core of the OS.

An unnamed source told The Verge the new Cortana will help users with a much wider range of tasks inside Windows 10, appearing contextually in documents to provide “information and assistance” and giving Cortana control over a wider range of notifications.

The other major upgrade to Cortana will reportedly be an ability to start a task on one device and pick it up on another, for instance if you get a missed call on an Android phone running the Cortana app you could reply from your Windows 10 PC via text.

7. Microsoft doubles down on Windows 10 phones as desktops

A much touted feature of Windows 10 is its ability to run a desktop OS from a phone.

Microsoft’s new Lumia 950 and 950XL handsets can – wirelessly or via a dock – be hooked up to a monitor, mouse and keyboard and used to run a Windows desktop.

The Windows 10 OS can change the look and feel of certain apps, as well as its own appearance, to suit the phone or the desktop, as well as coping with everyday desktop tasks, such as multitasking and copying files from a USB stick.

The expectation is that Microsoft will further commit to this idea of using your phone as a desktop in 2016, with rumours that Panos Panay and the team behind the high-end Surface Book laptop are working on a Surface Phone that will release next year.

8. No more free upgrade

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to everyone running Windows 7 or 8.1 but only for a limited time.

The offer of a free upgrade will expire on 29 July 2016 – after which point it seems that users will have to buy a Windows 10 licence.

However, due to the in-your-face tactics that Microsoft is adopting to persuade people to upgrade, it seems unlikely that Windows 7 and 8.1 users will inadvertently miss out on the offer.

9. Windows 10 replaces its predecessors on new PCs

If you’re not a fan of Windows 10 then you should buy a new PC before October.

From the end of October 2016, PC makers will have to sell new machines with Windows 10, rather than Windows 7 or 8.1.

After that point businesses that want to run older Windows versions on new machines will have to rely on downgrade rights or software assurance rights under volume license agreements.

10. Windows 10 Surface Hub arrives

From January 2016 Windows 10 will power another new piece of hardware,Microsoft’s touchscreen computer the Surface Hub.

The successor to its large-screen Perceptive Pixel displays, the Surface Hub will run a custom version of Windows 10 and various apps needed for workplace communication and collaboration, including OneNote, Skype for Business and Office.

The 55-inch, Intel Core i5-based Surface Hub model will sell for $6,999 (estimated retail price), and the Intel Core i7-based 84-inch version for $19,999 ERP.

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Microsoft’s latest OS is proving more attractive to firms than Windows 8 – particularly among larger businesses.

Businesses are proving far more willing to experiment with Windows 10 than they were with Windows 8.

Six months after Windows 10’s launch nearly one in five firms, 18 percent, appear to be testing the OS, research by professional IT network Spiceworks found. In contrast, at the same point after Windows 8’s release, the OS was only being trialled by just over nine percent of businesses.

The anonymised data on what proportion of firms are using at least one Windows 10 machine was gathered from the millions of IT pros that use its software. Spiceworks says businesses of all sizes use the software to inventory devices connected to their networks.

This faster pace of enterprise adoption is backed up by figures from IT asset management company Samanage, told that 62.4 percent of its enterprise customers have at least one managed PC running Windows 10. These are sizeable businesses, with each of Samanage’s enterprise customers having an average of more than 1,000 seats. Microsoft also claims that 76 percent of its enterprise customers are piloting its new OS.

“Our data shows that IT pros were most excited about the return of the familiar start button experience in Windows 10, which reduces the need for end-user training required for Windows 8,” said Peter Tsai, IT analyst at Spiceworks in his assessment of why the new OS is proving more popular than Windows 8.

“Many IT pros also liked the free upgrade offer via Windows Update, which makes it easy for many to test the new OS. And lastly, they were looking forward to new security features that promise to make Windows 10 a more secure operating system than previous versions.”

Windows 10 is benefiting from a comparison to an unpopular OS, demand for Windows 8 was so weak that analyst firm Canalys warned in 2014 that “Microsoft risks losing momentum unless it does something drastic to turn its Windows business around”.

And while a significant proportion of businesses may be experimenting with Windows 10, it is likely to be some time before a large number move to the OS, as business typically lag behind consumers due to the complexity of managing such upgrades at scale. Of those firms testing Windows 10, about 40 percent have three or more devices running the OS, according to Spiceworks’ data.

Medium and large businesses were the most likely to have at least one Windows 10 machine Spiceworks found – with 31 percent of firms with more than 500 people trialling the OS, compared to 10 percent of companies with 50 employees or fewer.

“We also know from many conversations with IT pros that smaller companies tend to have fewer resources for OS migration, so many SMBs could be holding off on Windows 10 until they have the time and manpower to adequately test the OS for hardware and application compatibility,” said Tsai.

Last year, half of the 500 IT pros surveyed by Spiceworks expressed an interest in adopting Windows 10 inside their business.

Microsoft’s decision to phase out support for Windows 7 and 8 on new PC hardware will also put pressure on businesses not to downgrade new Windows 10 machines to an earlier OS, as has been common in the past in order to standardize corporate hardware.

Microsoft is also reporting rapid adoption of Windows 10 by home users, with more than 200 million devices worldwide running the OS.

The popularity of the OS may, in part, be a result of Microsoft’s tactics to get consumers to upgrade. This aggressive approach includes recently implementing changes that will trigger the free upgrade to Windows 10 to begin automatically installing on many Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs used in homes. Microsoft is making this push as part of its drive to get one billion devices running Windows 10 by 2018.

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Outlook

Most users manage more than one e-mail account. Outlook 2010 and 2013 automatically create individual folders for each account. If you’re still using Outlook 2007 or earlier, you can simulate this convenience, but you’ll have to set it up yourself. In this article, I’ll show you seven ways to sort or view email messages by their accounts. I’ll include instructions for 2010 and 2013; even if you need to sort by accounts, you might want to use these methods to sort by other criteria.

1. Create account-specific folders

You can simulate the account-specific Inbox configuration in Outlook 2010 and 2013 by creating new download folders for each account. Doing so is easy, and it’s probably the best way to manage multiple accounts in Outlook 2007 and earlier. You’ll create an account-specific folder as follows:

1. Choose Account Settings from the Tools menu in Outlook 2007. (In Outlook 2010 and 2013, Account Settings are on the File tab.)
2. Select the POP3 account you want to reconfigure.
3. Click the Change Folder button. (This button isn’t available for IMAP accounts.)
4. Use the resulting dialog to identify the folder you want to download your POP3 account mail to (Figure A) or create a new folder if it doesn’t already exist.
   Figure A

   Figure A

5. Click OK and then Close.

After making this change, Outlook will download that account’s mail into the specified folder. You can create specific folders for every POP3 account you have.

Unlike the 2010/2013 configuration, all of your messages download into the same .pst file. In addition, Outlook will save copies of all sent messages in the default account, not in the account-specific folder.

2. Use a rule

Rules have been around for a long time. They’re commonly used to manipulate mail as it arrives. You can also use a rule to manipulate mail received from a specific account as follows:

1. Select the Inbox.
2. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, choose Rules and Alerts from the Tools menu. In Outlook 2010 and 2013, click the File tab and click Manage Rules & Alerts in the Account Information section. (Outlook 2010 and 2013 users won’t need this rule unless they choose to combine all accounts into the same Inbox. Although this is unlikely, I’m including the instructions to be as comprehensive as possible.)
3. Click New Rule on the E-Mail Rules tab.
4. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, use Check messages when they arrive. Outlook 2010 and 2013 users, select Apply rule on message I receive.
5. Click Next.
6. Check the through the specified account option.
7. Click the specified link in the bottom pane (Figure B).
   Figure B

   Figure B

8. Choose the account from the resulting drop-down, click OK, and then click Next.
9. Check move it to the specified folder.
10. Click the specified folder link in the bottom pane. Then, identify the folder to which you want to download mail from the specified account (Figure C), and click OK. You can create a folder at this point, if necessary.
    Figure C

    Figure C

11. Click Next twice (you won’t want to include any exceptions to the rule most likely).
12. Give the rule a name. I recommend a name that includes the account’s name, such as “Move message for account name.”
13. Turn the message on if necessary.
14. Select Run this rule now on messages already in “Inbox” (Figure D) if you want Outlook to move existing messages into the folder. Doing so can save a lot of time.
    Figure D

    Figure D

15. Click Finish, and then click OK.

This rule works similarly to the account-specific folder tip in #1. If you’re not familiar with rules, take a minute to review the many conditions and actions; you can do a lot with rules.

3. Use the Account view option

You can use a view property to sort message by their accounts. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, choose Arrange By from the View menu and then select E-mail Account. The change is immediate, but its helpfulness in a busy Inbox is limited. You’ll probably find it more useful to combine this setting with other sorting methods, such as search folders and filters. After creating the main sort, apply this setting to further define the results by account. In addition, you can quickly apply this setting to all folders by modifying the default Messages view and then copying it. (For more complete instructions on applying this setting to all folders, read “Pro tip: Use standard and custom views to personalize an Outlook folder.”)

In Outlook 2010 and 2013, you can combine individual .pst files into one and download all mail into the same Inbox. You’ll find this setting in the Arrangement gallery on the View tab. (Click the More button to see all of the settings.)

4. Sort by the E-mail Account column

Similar to changing a view’s configuration, you can sort multi-account folders by accounts. You might find this alternative easier or preferable to creating or modifying a view. To add this column, do the following:

1. Right-click the title bar (in the Mail window).
2. Select Field Chooser from the resulting dialog.
3. Choose All Mail Fields from the drop-down.
4. Drag E-mail Account to the title bar (Figure E) and release it. If it’s not where you want it, drag it accordingly.
   Figure E

After adding the E-mail Account column, you can click it to sort all mail in the folder by their accounts.

5. Use a view

Both the Account view and adding the E-mail Account column will sort messages by accounts, but you’ll still see mail for all of your accounts. If you want to view mail from a single account, create a view. Then you can apply views to filter messages accordingly. To view messages from a single account using a filtered view, do the following:

1. In Outlook 2003, choose Arrange By from the View menu. In Outlook 2007, choose Current View from the View menu. In Outlook 2010 and 2013, click the View tab and choose Manage Views from the Change View drop-down in the Current View group.
2. Click New.
3. Give the view a name. I recommend naming the view for the account.
4. Select Table and All Mail and Post Folders (the default).
5. Click OK.
6. Click Filter.
7. Click the Advanced tab in the resulting dialog.
8. Choose All Mail fields from the Field drop-down, and then choose E-mail Account (Figure F).
   Figure F

9. Choose is (exactly) from the Condition drop-down.
10. Set the Value using the account’s name (Figure G).
    Figure G

11. Click Add to List.
12. Press OK twice.
13. Click OK to close the Manage All Views dialog and return to the Mail window.

Repeat the above steps to create a custom view for each account. To view all the messages for only one account, choose the appropriate view from the Change View drop-down (in the Current View group).

6. Sort into search folders       

Similar to filtering with a view, you can display account-specific mail in a search folder. The difference, of course, is the difference between a view and a folder. The view merely filters mail to determine what you see, but all of the messages are still there. A search folder contains links to only those messages that meet the folder’s search criteria. To create a search folder for this purpose, do the following:

1. In Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, choose New from the File menu, and then select Search folder. In Outlook 2010 and 2013, click the Folder tab and then click New Search Folder in the New group.
2. In the resulting dialog, choose Create a custom Search Folder (in the Custom section at the bottom of the list).
3. Click Choose, and then name the new folder. I recommend that you name the folder for the account.
4. Click Browse, exclude folders and subfolders you don’t want to search, and click OK. Doing so will speed up your search.
5. Click Criteria, and then click the Advanced tab.
6. Choose All Mail Fields from the Field drop-down and then choose E-mail Account.
7. Choose is (exactly) from the Condition drop-down.
8. Set the Value using the account’s name.
9. Click Add to List.
10. Click OK four times.

Create a folder for each of your accounts. To read the mail for an account, open that account’s search folder.

7. Format by account

Sometimes, a visual clue is all you need. When this is the case, apply a format to distinguish accounts as follows:

1. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, choose Arrange By from the View menu. Choose Custom, and then select Automatic Formatting. In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, click the View tab. Then, click View Settings in the Current View group. In the resulting dialog, click Conditional Formatting.
2. Click Add and name the new View. I recommend that you name the view after the account.
3. Click Condition.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Choose All Mail Fields from the Field drop-down and then choose E-mail Account.
6. Choose is (exactly) from the Condition drop-down.
7. Set the Value using the account’s name.
8. Click Add to List, and then click OK.
9. In the Conditional Formatting dialog, click Font and change the formats accordingly. Changing the font’s color is a common choice.
10. Click OK three times to return to the Mail window.

Outlook will update the folder immediately by applying the formats for the specified account.

About the .pst files

It might never matter to you, but should .pst management become an issue, keep the following in mind:

• Outlook 2010 and 2013 download POP3 mail into separate (dedicated) .pst files. For each account, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox.
• Outlook 2007 and earlier download all mail into the same .pst file, regardless of the changes you make for viewing the mail via the interface.

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In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel’s Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months.

Enterprise customers are still the bulwark of Microsoft’s Windows business, in both the client and server segments.

Historically, those customers have also been among the most conservative, lagging years behind the latest releases of an operating system release. Those practices have been encouraged by Microsoft’s support lifecycle, which offers a generous ten years of support for each Windows release.

Effective today, that policy is changing in a subtle but significant way, with the addition of new hardware requirements for support of pre-Windows 10 releases. The company’s also publishing a preferred list of systems that will receive special attention for updates and support.

Yes, Windows 7 (currently in the Extended support phase) will continue to receive updates until January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. But in a series of “clarifications” to its support policy today, the company announced that support for those older Windows versions will be available only for “previous generations of silicon.”

Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support… Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming “Kaby Lake” silicon, Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996” silicon, and AMD’s upcoming “Bristol Ridge” silicon.

The policy will be phased in beginning with systems based on Intel’s new 6th-generation CPUs (code-named Skylake), which debuted a few months ago. New consumer-based Skylake devices must run Windows 10 to be supported.

For enterprise customers that want to buy “future proof” new hardware based on Skylake processors running older Windows versions, Microsoft will publish “a list of specific new Skylake devices we will support to run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.” That support will run for a period 18 months, until July 17, 2017, after which those enterprise customers will be expected to upgrade to Windows 10.

Examples of systems that will be on the initial release of the list include Dell’s Latitude 12, Latitude 13 7000 Ultrabook, and XPS 13; HP’s EliteBook Folio, EliteBook 1040 G3; and Lenovo’s ThinkPad T460s, X1 Carbon, and P70 models.

The list will continue to be updated, Microsoft says.

Any machine that earns a place on the elite enterprise support list will get very special treatment indeed, with the idea being to reassure corporate customers that these models are especially likely to perform well on Windows 10 in the new era of continuous updates:

For the listed systems, along with our OEM partners, we will perform special testing to help future proof customers’ investments, ensure regular validation of Windows Updates with the intent of reducing potential regressions including security concerns, and ensure all drivers will be on Windows Update with published BIOS/UEFI upgrading tools, which will help unlock the security and power management benefits of Windows 10 once the systems are upgraded.

These models also get special treatment for enterprises that are still planning their Windows 10 migration, with an 18-month grace period where the older OS versions are fully supported.

Through July 17, 2017, Skylake devices on the supported list will also be supported with Windows 7 and 8.1. During the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends. After July 2017, the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices.

Of course, enterprise customers who want to stick with earlier Windows versions beyond that mid-2017 deadline have lots and lots of options, based on current generations of Intel processors such as the Broadwell and Haswell lines. Those systems, which are based on what Microsoft calls “downlevel silicon,” will continue to be fully supported for pre-Windows 10 operating systems.

In today’s blog post, Microsoft says it’s seeing “unprecedented demand from our enterprise customers” in Windows 10. Enterprise customers are especially interested in new Windows 10 security features like Credential Guard, which uses hardware virtualization to safeguard credentials from attack.

Windows 8-era enhancements like Secure Boot, which protects systems from being compromised by rootkits and bootkits, also require new hardware.

Not surprisingly, today’s announcement contains the usual cheery statements from Microsoft’s three biggest hardware partners: Dell, HP, and Lenovo. All three companies compete aggressively in the low-margin consumer market, where virtually all new systems will run Windows 10. But enterprises will pay premium prices for the improvements in battery life and security in Skylake-based mobile systems, making this the most attractive segment to target.

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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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let the dust settle before you attempt the free Windows 10 upgrade.

With the official Windows 10 launch and Microsoft’s promise that the upgrade for Windows 7/8.1 systems will be free for the first year after launch, you’ll have until July 29, 2016, to make your move. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean you have to rush to get your copy—unless, of course, it’s a status thing.

For the ordinary Windows user, there really isn’t any immediate need to be one of the first people to download Windows 10. In fact, you’ll probably have a better upgrade experience if you hold off for a bit. Wait for the hype to die down, wait for the load on the Windows Update servers to wane, and more importantly, wait for the first wave of updates to make their way out to the masses of Windows users who had to be the first.

Besides, unless you’re a Windows Insider program participant, chances are that you won’t be able to get Windows 10 right away anyhow.

In his July 2nd blog post, “Windows 10: Preparing to Upgrade One Billion Devices,” Terry Myerson stated:

“We want to make sure all of you have a great upgrade experience, so we’ll roll-out Windows 10 in phases to help manage the demand.”

He then goes on to say:

“Starting on July 29, we will start rolling out Windows 10 to our Windows Insiders. From there, we will start notifying reserved systems in waves, slowly scaling up after July 29th. Each day of the roll-out, we will listen, learn and update the experience for all Windows 10 users.”

That last sentence hints at the fact that the Microsoft is anticipating the possibility that there may be some glitches in the first wave of the roll out.

To be sure, I’m not suggesting that you hold out for months before you upgrade—rather, I’m saying that you may want to give it a couple of weeks just to see how others are faring with Windows 10. With Microsoft’s Windows as a service model, the ongoing testing via the extension of the Windows Insider program, and the rapid update system developed during the Windows Insider preview program, the hope is that any issues that crop up in the first weeks after initial availability will be quickly resolved.

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