Controversies of the year of the week

• Exchangegate: Hackers Have Exploited at Least 30,000 Exchange Servers
• UserVoicegate: Microsoft is moving to its own alternatives to UserVoice for customer feedback
• Invokegate: Harman Kardon Removes Cortana from Invoke

Windows 10

• Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21332
• Microsoft Edge Gets Vertical Tabs, More
• Support Ends for Microsoft Edge Legacy
• Microsoft to Move to a Single Edge codebase
• Google is Speeding Up the Chrome Release Schedule
• Chromebook Turns 10
• Microsoft to Unveil New Webcam this Spring
• Dark Mode, More Coming to OneDrive

Xbox

• Microsoft Cleared in US and EU to Close Bethesda Acquisition
• The March Xbox Update is Rolling Out
• Forza Horizon 4 Available Now on Steam
• Xbox Starts Testing 'New' Edge for Xbox

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Be portable in all things
• App pick of the week: Visual Studio Code
• Enterprise pick of the week: New deployment service for firmware, drivers
• Codename pick of the week: Spartan
• Beer pick of the week: Fifth Hammer Prickly Whiskers

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• udacity.com/twit coupon code TWiT
• Melissa.com/twit

Microsoft Ignite 2021

• Paul Thurrott's Short Takes: Microsoft Ignite 2021 Special Edition
• Microsoft shows off its Mesh mixed-reality collaboration platform
• Microsoft Announces its Mesh MR Platform - Thurrott.com
• Envisioning the Future with Windows Mixed Reality
• Panay Touts "the Next Generation of Windows"
• Guide to Microsoft Ignite 2021 for the Windows Enthusiast
• Microsoft shares more on what's coming in Windows Server 2022
• Power Automate Desktop App for Windows 10 is Now Available
• Microsoft Ignite 2021 Book of News

Windows 10

• Windows 10 Version 20H2 Pushes Past 20 Percent Usage Share

Hardware

• Qualcomm Launches the Snapdragon Insider Program
• HP's PC Business Surged in the Most Recent Quarter

Xbox

• Halo Infinite a "Spiritual Reboot" of the Series, Microsoft Says
• Xbox Suffered a Big Outage Last Night
• Here Are the First Titles Coming to Xbox Game Pass in March

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: When it comes to content, where is as important as what
• App pick of the week: Flutter 2
• Enterprise pick of the week: Azure Deprecations: How to keep up
• Codename pick of the week: The Walking Cat's collection of Mesh-related codenames
• Beer pick of the week: Foam Brewers Zero Day

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Microsoft Office

• Microsoft announces two new Office updates for 2021:
• Office LTSC
• Office 2021 for commercial and consumer customers

Windows 10

• Microsoft is cutting Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC support from ten years to five
• Microsoft Brings Another FEP to the Windows Insider Beta Channel
• Microsoft to talk about the future of mixed reality' at Ignite conference next week

Power Platform

• Microsoft readies Power Fx, a new Power Platform low-code language
• Too late; P# already exists

Surface

• Microsoft is Selling Replacement SSDs for Surface Pro 7+

Microsoft

• Microsoft Concludes Its SolarWinds Investigation
• Microsoft Calls for Australian-Style Media Arbitration in EU
• Microsoft unveils three more 'industry clouds' for financial, manufacturing and nonprofit

Xbox

• Microsoft Announces Games for Gold for March
• Fall Guys Lands on Xbox This Summer
• Sony is Bringing VR to PlayStation 5
• Sony is Bringing PlayStation Games to the PC

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Buy cereal, get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
• App pick of the week: Tiles 2.0
• Developer pick of the week: .NET Conf Focus on Windows
• Enterprise pick of the week: Automatically translate Word docs into PowerPoints
• Beer pick of the week: Delirium Black Barrel Aged

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• business.eset.com/twit
• conga.com/twit

Windows 10

• Microsoft finally confirms Windows 10 version 21H1, stating that it will be a minor cumulative update like 2004 and 20H2.
• Yes, 21H1 is a Thing!
• New Windows Insider Build Adds a Few Minor Improvements
• Intel Takes on Apple M1 with New Series of "Go PC" Ads

Microsoft Edge

• Microsoft Edge Now Uses Adaptive Notifications
• Microsoft to add 'Kids Mode' to Chromium-based Edge browser

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft's unified Office app is now available for iPad
• Why did it take a year for Microsoft to bring Office app to iPad?

Surface

• Surface Duo Drops to $999, Heads to the UK

More Microsoft

• Why does Microsoft keep trying to buy its way into the consumer market?
• Microsoft Collaborates with VW on Automated Driving Platform

Xbox

• Microsoft Announces the Xbox Wireless Headset
• Microsoft Brings FPS Boost to Backward Compatible Games
• Xbox Cloud Gaming for the PC Moves Closer Towards Release
• Here are the Next Titles Coming to Game Pass This Month
• Flight Simulator Update Brings Enhanced Visuals for the UK and Ireland

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Pay for what matters
• App pick of the week: LastPass
• Dev pick of the week: Dapr 1.0
• Codename pick of the week: Atlas
• Beer pick of the week: Maine Second Dinner

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• Gabi.com/WINDOWS
• udacity.com/twit coupon code TWiT

• Microsoft details its legacy Edge browser phase-out strategy
• Windows 10 Version 2004 is Finally Reliable Enough for Everyone

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft outlines plans for Viva, an employee-experience platform anchored in Teams
• Microsoft Adds Two New Power Apps to Teams
• Microsoft to add new webinar and 'meeting intelligence' capabilities to Teams via Teams Pro
• Microsoft is Testing a New Dark Mode for Word

More Microsoft

• Intel Sues Engineer Who Left for Microsoft

Xbox

• Minecraft Dungeons Now Reaches 10 Million Players
• Forza Horizon 4 is Coming to Steam on March 9

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Use your Xbox Wireless Controller with two devices
• Learning pick of the week: Learn iOS development from Stanford
• Dev pick of the week: Updated WinUI roadmap on GitHub
• Codename pick of the week: SurfaceFleet
• Valentine's Day cocktail: Sparkling Sangria

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• Melissa.com/twit
• forwardnetworks.com/twit
• hover.com/twit

Windows 10

• Microsoft Edge picks up a better roadmap for future features
• Windows 10 "in cloud" configurations are now available

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft 365/Teams saw big education success but struggle against Chromebooks
• Related: It's not just PCs, 2020 Was the Best Year Ever for Chromebook
• Microsoft to highlight improvements to the 'employee experience' in Feb. 4 event
• Microsoft to add new voice command, video, and other features to Office mobile apps
• Microsoft Announces a Slew of Mobile App Updates
• Office Lens is Renamed to Microsoft Lens

Xbox

• Game Pass titles for the first half of February
• Now Xbox Series X|S supplies will be constrained through mid-2021
• Sony shipped 4.5 million PS5 units in Q4, less than the 6 million expected, but Sony's best quarter ever
• Nintendo has now shipped 80 million Switches
• Google kills internal games dev at Stadia

More earnings

• Microsoft - $43.1 billion in revenues
• Amazon - $126 billion
• Apple - $111.4 billion
• Google - $56.9 billion
• Samsung - $55.3 billion
• Microsoft underperformed all of those companies last quarter

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Use some common sense when it comes to game streaming services
• App pick of the week: iCloud Passwords
• Also: Vivaldi adds a second tab row for tab groups.
• Enterprise pick of the week: Roadmapwatch.com
• Codename pick of the week: JET Blue
• Beer pick of the week: The Bruery: Bakery: Coconut Macaroons

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:

• barracuda.com/windows

• Microsoft reported a net income of $15.5 billion on revenues of $43.1 billion for the quarter ending December 31, 2020.
• Pre-COVID spending levels are coming back, leading to Azure, Windows growth
• Xbox had a huge quarter
• Surface was pretty flat, Windows was mixed
• Related: New Surface ad is a bit disingenuous
• Related: Intel had a huge quarter

It happens in threes

• Kurt DelBene is retiring from Microsoft.
• Plus: Rich Turner is joining Project Reunion.

Windows

• Windows Insider Program shows off a second Feature Experience Pack.
• You can install that leaked Windows 10X build on a Surface Pro 7 if you're daring and technical enough
• Another new Dev Channel build today with not much in it (besides some touch keyboard tweaks)

Web browsers

• Edge 88: This is the big one, 'Lizabeth. One year later, Edge is finally "complete" and mature.
• Chrome 88 is out with password improvements, and Chrome OS 88 is out with sign-in, lock screen improvements
• Microsoft Edge now supports profiles in PWAs
• And Google Calendar gets basic offline support (again)
• YouTube is now a PWA
• Mozilla is killing the Firefox PWA feature

Xbox

• Microsoft Backtracks, Xbox Live Gold Pricing Won't Change
• 5 more titles are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Get your free audiobooks on Spotify
• App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge & Brave Browser
• Enterprise pick of the week: New Dynamics 365 and Power Platform feature plans are available now
• Enterprise pick of the week: IT Ops: All Things Hybrid
• Beer pick of the week: S'mores Bourbon Barrel-Aged Framinghammer

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• udacity.com/twit coupon code TWiT
• business.eset.com/twit
• wwt.com/twit

• Windows 10X leaks
• Windows 10X: Microsoft's 'cloud-powered' Chrome OS competitor inches closer
• Paul Thurrott explores Windows 10X: Setup, Desktop and Start, Taskbar and Action Center, Microsoft Edge, Built-in Apps
• Microsoft touts more Windows 10 PCs, some with LTE options, at BettFest education show
• Microsoft Pushes PCs, Teams at Education Event

• Industry
• Microsoft's Azure marketing chief Julia White joins SAP
• Microsoft invests in General Motors' self-driving subsidiary Cruise
• New Intel CEO Wants to Beat Apple

• Xbox
• Microsoft Announces More Game Pass Titles for January
• Microsoft Highlights the 2021 Xbox Console Exclusives
• Microsoft's Making the Xbox OS More Agile

• Tips and picks
• Tip of the week: Paul Thurrott's next book is on the way.
• App pick of the week: Chrome 88 & Brave
• Enterprise pick of the week: Ignite Part 2 is coming.
• Codename pick of the week: VAIL
• Beer pick of the week: Tree House Brewing New Decade Do-Over

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:

• conga.com/twit

• There isn't really TOO much excitement, but major announcements from both Intel and AMD will impact the PC industry in 2021.
• New PCs, as expected, nothing truly unique.
• Intel CEO Swan to be replaced by VMware CEO Gelsinger
• Qualcomm buys CPU design firm Nuvia

PCs

• The PC market surged in 2020, had its best year since 2015.
• Microsoft announced Surface Pro 7+ for businesses and not Surface Pro 8 as expected.
• Windows 10 Dev build adds improvements to that new news feed feature

Microsoft

• Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson is leaving Microsoft for Qualtrics
• Microsoft is finalizing its transition to Azure
• Microsoft rolls out its second vertical cloud bundle – for retail

Xbox

• Microsoft denies Duracellgate is a thing!
• Microsoft Announces Xbox Wireless Controller in Pulse Red

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Paul's photo management system
• App pick of the week: Mozilla Firefox
• Enterprise pick of the week: Microsoft increases file upload size for M365
• Codename pick of the week: Project Peabody
• Beer pick of the week: 3Floyd's Gumballhead

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

• The future of Windows 10 (and lack of information): Microsoft tests 'news and interests' feature in the taskbar, and rumor is testers should move soon if they want to keep testing 21H1.
• Microsoft mulligans: New 'Sun Valley' Windows 10 UX for version 2021, 'One Outlook' to unify desktop and web-based clients, and history/tabs sync is coming to Edge.
• Cloud: More on Microsoft's Azure-in-a-shipping-container MDC
• More SolarWinds fallout: Microsoft says hackers viewed some of its source code but didn't try to attack the corporate domain.
• Xbox: Microsoft to address Series X|S shortages, RIP Minecraft Earth, the first Game Pass titles of 2021, and Bloomberg's piece on Xbox's creation and 20-year history.

Tips and picks

• Tip of the week: Paul's OCD file management tips
• App pick of the week: Newsfeed apps The Old Reader and NewsBlur
• Developer pick of the week: Learn web dev on GitHub
• Enterprise pick of the week: Azure AD is going to four nines
• Beer pick of the week: Threes Brewing Volition

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.