Microsoft will force all Windows 10 users to upgrade to 'version 22H2' next month

Windows 10 version 22H2 is the last version of Windows 10, and will be supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

Reminder: End of servicing for Windows 10, version 21H2 Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations

On June 13, 2023, Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations editions of Windows 10, version 21H2 will reach end of servicing. The upcoming June 2023 security update, to be released on June 13, 2023, will be the last update available for these versions. After this date, devices running these version will no longer receive monthly security and preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats.

To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of, reaching end of servicing. This keeps your device supported and receiving monthly updates that are critical to security and ecosystem health. For these devices, you will be able to choose a convenient time for your device to restart and complete the update.

As always, we recommend that you update your devices to the latest version of Windows 10, or upgrade eligible devices to Windows 11. For detailed information, see the Windows 10, version 21H2 end of servicing (Home & Pro) lifecycle page. For information about servicing timelines and lifecycle, see Windows 10 release information, Windows 11 release information, Lifecycle FAQ - Windows, and Microsoft Lifecycle Policy search tool.

Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium

(formerly Microsoft 365 Business)

• Stay up to date with the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
• Connect with customers and coworkers using Outlook, Exchange, and Teams.
• Manage your files from anywhere with 1 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive per user.
• Defend your business against advanced cyberthreats with sophisticated phishing and ransomware protection.
• Control access to sensitive information using encryption to help keep data from being accidentally shared.
• Secure devices that connect to your data and help keep iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices safe and up to date.

Compatible with Windows 10 Pro. Some management features are not supported in Windows Home. All languages included.

The reason I posted the article is to address one of the features of this license. You are given upgrade rights for previous versions of Windows with this subscription but it has to be a pro version. So if you have a PC with Windows 10 (Home) on it, it does not qualify for the upgrade with this license.

Customers who wish to run Microsoft 365 Business Premium in their organization must be running Windows 10 Pro* on their desktops in order for the service to manage their PCs.
*Windows 10 Pro upgrade rights are included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium if the machines are presently running Windows 7 Pro or 8.1 Pro.

ZDNet Reports: Windows 10 activation bug baffles, angers users

Another instance where Microsoft has a reported issue with a release that can have devastating results if you update with it.

Microsoft is working on a reported problem with their Windows 10 Pro system deactivating their license.

Microsoft states:

"Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, America and many other countries," wrote the support agent.

"I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated. Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days, Daniel."

To see more on this issue: Click Here

Need to check the calendar? Here’s a quick method of doing so in Windows 10.

IF you don’t have Outlook open and you don’t want to wait for it to open up then here is a quick and easy method of gaining access to your calendar information.

Windows 10 has added a easy method of checking what you have on your calendar by clicking on the date/time on your task bar. Look on the left had side of the taskbar and you will see something that should like the image below.

If you click with the left mouse button on the date/time you will see a pop-up calendar highlighting today’s date with your current appointments listed. See image to the left.

When you click on different dates, that date’s appointments will appear in the list at the bottom of the screen. You can use the up and down arrows to change the month.

To jump quickly to another month or year click on the Month/Year heading and a pop-up will be displayed for quickly moving to the year and month you want to work in. That displays a list of months for the current year. Use the up and down arrows to change years or click the year heading to jump to a list of all years in the current decade.

To quickly jump back to the current date click on the date line above the calendar and below the time display and you will instantly move back to the current date.

(Windows tip of the Week idea from Ed Bott of Microsoft Weekly)

What’s new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

This Week on Windows is all about the brand new Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, including interviews for the new Photos experience, the Mixed Reality Viewer, Mixed Reality head-mounted-displays, a rundown of new gaming features, and much, much more. Check out more about the Windows 10 Fall Creators update at https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexpe...

Get the Windows 10–Fall Creators Update

Download the Windows 10—Fall Creators Update SDK today. Want to learn more about what’s in it? Get the overview by watching the Windows Developer Day keynote and dive deeper with over 18 sessions on Windows 10 features and capabilities here.

And don’t forget to enter an epic sweepstakes with amazing prizes. When you submit or update a Windows Store app targeting Windows 10—Fall Creators Update (build 16299), you’ll have a chance to win one of five prize packages—each valued at over $8,000 USD.* You’ll receive one entry for each app or game you create or update that meets the criteria.

*No Purchase Necessary. Open only to Universal Windows Apps developers 18+. Sweepstakes ends November 17, 2017. For details, see Official Rules.

Updates to Windows as a Service Model

If you wanted to know how Microsoft is planning on keeping your copy of Windows 10 updated with security and bug fixes and new feature update builds.

Windows 10 Support for Older Hardware is at Risk

Microsoft with the Windows 10 operating system has been moved into a Software as a Service (SaaS) model instead of the more traditional 5 + 5 model of earlier versions of Windows. (meaning, 5 years of feature and security updates, and 5 extra years for security updates only.) Microsoft included a hardly read note that you are eligible for Windows 10 for the “supported lifetime of the device.”  The problem is that each Windows 10 update receives security fixes for just 18 months. Version 1607, the latest that these Clover Trail machines can install, will drop out of support in early 2018 - after which they'll cease to receive any patches at all.

"The following Intel Clover Trail processors are currently not supported on Windows 10 Creators Update:

• Atom Z2760
• Atom Z2520
• Atom Z2560
• Atom Z2580

Acer is working with Microsoft to resolve this issue but how long before other processor’s support is pulled as well. With hardware evolving the push is on to continue to write code to take advantage of it and there is a lot of overhead to keep code in for machines that meet these expectations. It stands to reason that Microsoft will continuously prefer to support new and newer systems, choosing to prioritize these over older hardware configurations.

Fall Updates coming to Microsoft OneDrive

One of the issues I have with my Microsoft Surface Book is that after I had a Surface Pro with 64GB storage on it I figured that I would be fine with the Surface Book with 256GB of storage as long as I am very careful with what I store on it. It didn’t take me long to add a USB flash memory to give me a little more headroom on the my device.

If you are using OneDrive for off-device storage, you either have to have the sync working, meaning you have the files on your devices and in the cloud, or just in the cloud. The Fall release of OneDrive with the Windows 10 Creators Update is going to provide the ability to control this a little better. With this update you will be able to set on-demand access to your cloud files so that you are really using the Cloud storage as just that, Cloud Storage. This way, you only need to bring down the document you are currently working on and then you can set the on-demand designation for it to be off-loaded from your local drive and put back into the cloud.

Of course you can’t do this yet, but you have the alternative now to pick and choose the folders that you want synced on you local drive currently. But taking this to the file level and having it automatically being returned to the cloud for you when you are through viewing or editing the document is going to be a nice feature.

Here’s a quick overview video showing this feature and how it works from Windows Central:

Microsoft Announces Windows 10 features coming in fall update during 2nd day of Build 2017 Conference…

The Fall Update has been named Fall Creators Update. This is part of Microsoft’s new plan for updating its current operating system semi-annually. While not committed to any specific dates, expect it to be delivered in October of 2017.

One change will be a new design language called Microsoft Fluent Design System. This is the most current version of what started as the “Metro style apps”. This version adds shading, blur effects and animations to the Windows interface and to apps.

More information about the Fluent Design system is available at http://fluent.microsoft.com/.

Windows Story Remix is another addition that is designed to blend photos and videos into stories with a soundtrack, theme and movie transitions. This should be the long need replacement to Microsoft’s Movie Maker which though works for what it does, doesn’t have a lot of features. I can’t wait to get my hands on this new addition.

Other new features announced work not just with Windows but with mobile devices running Microsoft apps on Android and iOS devices:

Timeline – Let’s you jump pack in time to open apps and documents as though you had never left them. Timeline allows you to jump back in time to find what you were working on. It works by using a scrollbar allowing you to scrub through a history of open apps, documents and more. “The Timeline feature essentially allows the user to rewind their system to a previous point in time, similar to how you would rewind a movie. Rewind back to the point in which you wish to resume from, and your system will restore itself as if it had never progressed passed that point.”

Pick Up Where You Left Off – This is a Cortana feature that already exists in current Window’s 10 Builds. The idea is that Cortana would track what you’re working on and offer to resume on a document when you switch from a mobile device to a PC or vise-versa. This is similar to Apple’s handoff feature in MacOS.

Clipboard – seems like Microsoft is running a theme here, with the clipboard now being able to be shared between devices as well. OneClip- For those who were living under a rock in May of 2015, you likely missed out on the original hype for OneClip. In short, it was a Microsoft Garage project that leaked to the public, available on a plethora of platforms including Windows, Android, and iOS. Shortly after it had leaked, Microsoft pulled the service from the public, denying access to anyone outside of Microsoft. The main goal of this function is to clip once and paste everywhere. This is all part of Microsoft focusing on productivity enhancements that will improve the way that we work between our devices.

OneDrive Files On-Demand - Microsoft executives say this is the single most requested new feature in the new update. It brings back the "placeholders" feature that was abruptly dropped in early preview releases of Windows 10. With this update, Windows 10 users will once again be able to open File Explorer and see a full representation of all files stored in OneDrive, regardless of whether they're synced locally.

What’s new in Hyper-V for the Windows 10 Creators Update?

Sarah, blogs.technet.microsoft.com

New and Improved features in Creators Update:

• Quick Create
• Checkpoint and Save for nested Hyper-V
• Dynamic resize for VM Connect
• Zoom for VM Connect
• Networking improvements (NAT)
• Developer-centric memory management

Read the article for more detail.

Windows 10 Creators Update begins to rollout

I thought with Windows 10 Creators Update beginning to roll out that I would start to highlight some of the messaging it's coming across about the differences in the new version compared to the old and any other information that I may come across about how the update is being done.

In this article by Tom Warren writing for the verge, he discusses what he considers to be the best 10 new features of the Windows 10 Creators Update.

Zach Bowden from Windows Central, posted an article announcing the update and discussing how you can force the update on your own equipment.

Here is another article by Zach Bowden on the official Windows 10  Creators Update  Review.

Mollie Ruiz-hopper from blogs.windows.com, wrote an article describing what’s new in the Windows 10 Creators Update. She also discusses how to get the creators update and some other articles describing some of Microsoft’s other announcements including the Surface Dial.

And of course my favorite go to guy for Microsoft info Paul Thurott.

This ought to get you started.

Windows 10 Cloud?

Windows 10 cloud has just been recently announced and it looks a lot like standard Windows 10. It is meant to be a chrome OS competitor and will be interesting to see as time goes on the type of equipment will be required and how well it will work on that equipment. This operating system is targeted for education and business sectors and ZDNet is reporting that it is designed to only run universal apps from the Windows store. I don't know the release date as of yet, but will be keeping my eyes open for new information as time goes by.

Lenovo is going to deliver on the Microsoft Courier design

This Microsoft CONCEPT device really grabbed my attention a quite a few years ago and I was really disappointed when it didn’t come to fruition. The article from Arstechnica describes the new Yoga Book in great detail and it seems to have everything that the original device promised. We’ll see in October when it is finally released. Do I want one? I don’t know now since I have gotten my hands on the Microsoft Surfacebook. I am truly in love with that device but having two screens on the same device could possibly create some interesting capabilities.

Microsoft confirms, kills Courier in one fell swoop – Engadget Journal Entry by Bob Appleby on May 5, 2010 - It is only right to report the demise of the Courier as since earlier this year I talked about how exciting this product concept was for me and several of my coworkers. In fact we were so enthralled with it we featured its video on the front page of our website for awhile. Darn it Microsoft, this is ...

Microsoft’s Courier takes some of the wind out of the iPad’s delivery announcement Journal Entry by Bob Appleby on March 7, 2010 - Friday was a very interesting day because of Microsoft Courier Tablet leak that occurred simultaneously with Apple’s announcement of the iPad’s release date. There has been a lot of hype surrounding iPad and how it is going to be super hit for Apple like the iPhone and iPod products have ...

Gizmodo Presentation on new Microsoft Tablet Journal Entry by Bob Appleby on September 28, 2009 - Not “Real” product yet, here is another prototype product showing a new design type that is using a hinged dual screen system. I would be interested in looking at one to see how it works, but I am slightly skeptical about the usability, and ruggedness of such a product. Microsoft’s product has even ...

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is reported to cause millions of webcams to stop working

Microsoft decided to exclude both H.264 and MJPEG codec support for millions of webcams. This includes cameras from manufacturers like Logitech.  According to Microsoft-focused blog Thurrott.com, this was supposedly a decision the company made to prevent performance issues now that certain Windows apps have more direct webcam access post-update.

Members of Microsoft’s Windows Camera team are performing damage control in support threads, and Thurrott.com reports an official fix may be in the works for a September release. Unfortunately, that may only remedy the MJPEG format. Those who rely on H.264 may be waiting even longer to make use of their webcams. If you recently installed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you can revert to the prior version of the software within 10 days.

Microsoft shortens recovery rollback period to 10 days in Windows 10 anniversary update

When one did an upgrade ever since Windows 10 began Microsoft offered the opportunity to recover their system by rolling back in upgrade. They now have shortened it to just 10 days instead of the 30 that they had done for previous versions.

They must figure that if you like Windows 10 you're going to really like the new anniversary update. You probably already know what Windows 10 is all about so you shouldn't need to have the longer period to check things out. If you are unhappy with the new version you should probably be able to figure that out within the 10 day timeframe.

According to winsupersite.com, a Microsoft spokesperson it was a data-driven decision to change rollback timeframe from 30 to just 10 days:

"Based on our user research, we noticed most users who choose to go back to a previous version of Windows do it within the first several days. As such, we changed the setting to 10 days to free storage space used by previous copies."

According to Microsoft they were seeing that people were rolling back in less than a week if they were going to do so and so in their mind, they were helping the end-user to recover somewhere between three and 5 GB of storage space on the device that was being used by the rollback recovery. This could be very significant for  low storage space devices so probably is a good thing that this has been shortened to help you out. I'm sure a lot of you will be able to come up with a case for why this would not be a good thing. .

Do you want to leap ahead in queue to begin your W10 Anniversary Update!

So you are telling me that you are a bit impatient and want to jump the line ahead of some of the other 350 million people waiting to upgrade to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. If this is what you want you can manually perform the update by going to the Windows 10 update history page.

This page will allow you to access the Get the Anniversary Update now button and will grab a small executable that you can run to pull in the update. It will go through a device check and then begin the download process. It will then begin the process of performing your upgrade.

If you find you don’t like the update it is easy to reverse the installation. But if you are already into using Window 10 I’m sure this upgrade will tickle you pink as well!

I just completed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

It took a little while for it to download and update, be patient you are competing with a bunch of other users wanting to do the same thing on their workstation as well. The Windows 10 update assistance provided at a nice screen to give me an idea of what is going on during the entire process. It doesn't take any amount of expertise to perform this software update so don't be afraid to try it out. Remember all you do is go to the Windows 10 update history to be able to do perform this update.

After the update is complete your system will have to reboot to finish the installation updates. Be careful that you don't turn off your's system during this last bit because it will potentially corrupt the installation if you do. It will probably go through several reboots during this process so be patient and let it do its thing.

When it finally completes it will go through a series of screens to ensure thatyour system is set upthe way that youneeded to with the features that you want to be turned on.See you have a choice of either taking the suggested set up or going in and customizing the settings the way you would like to see them. It will then go through a another quick processing period to finish setting up those changes. And then everything will be complete. On my system it took about an hour and 15 minutes to complete the whole process.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update Walk Through

Richard Hay from Supersite for Windows has posted a nice Windows 10 Anniversary Update Video showing a lot of the new features of this release. The release began yesterday so keep your eyes open for your copy of the update. If you are interested in what to expect you will probably want to take a quick look at this posting/video.

Are your looking forward to the Window 10 Anniversary Update?

It looks like Microsoft is making Cortana a central focus to many of its search functions including showing up on the lock screen. It will not only be more prominent but will also be much harder to get rid of “her”.

With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the search box is now Cortana. Customers can expect the same great search experience powered by Bing and Microsoft Edge with the added benefit of Cortana’s personality.

If your system is on a Windows Domain Network your IT Department can control this through group policies but we don’t have a simple and quick method of shutting “her’' down.

Another “feature” that is baked in is the inability for consumers to control Windows 10 updates. Your going to have to suffer through them.

The spokesperson suggested that there are some Cortana tweaks that Windows 10 consumer users could do, if wanted:

We know consumers want choice and we make it easy to customize Cortana’s personalization or opt-out of Cortana’s suite of personalized services. Cortana works best when you sign in, but if you choose not to, you can still use her to chat, search the web and your Windows device. If you like, you can also easily hide Cortana and the search box in the taskbar altogether.

Cortana is also going to hold a prominent role in educational environments as well.

For our education editions, Microsoft is committed to an experience free from sponsored content by default. Within Cortana, Microsoft could not guarantee that sponsored content would not appear as part of the online search experience.

Microsoft is working on creating a future Cortana service that has an "education-appropriate experience."