Windows 10 Redstone 4 Preview Build 17040 As Microsoft continues to move items from its classic control panel to the Settings app and one of the new improvements is the ability to adjust brightness for standard definition content color on a system in HDR mode. You will find the slider in Settings > System >Display. There are also improvements to the touch keyboard including support for shape-writing for the wide full-screen keyboard....

This article describes how to remove data in Active Directory due to an unsuccessful domain controller (DC) demotion via DCPROMO or simply because you have a DC that failed and you are unable to restart it to properly demote it to a member server. If you attempted to demote the DC using DCPROMO, as part of the demotion process, the configuration data is removed for the domain controller from Active Directory....

How long is long enough? According to Microsoft’s studies, each machine needs to be powered on and continuously connected to the internet for at least two hours for quality and feature updates to install via the Windows Update service. Otherwise it’s “very unlikely” a machine will install updates once they’re released by Microsoft. “What we found is that devices that don’t meet a certain amount of connected time are very unlikely to successfully update,” David Guyers, a Microsoft principal program manager of the Windows Update service, says in a blogpost....

Microsoft announced this evening its new music service, called “Xbox Music”, that aims to compete with iTunes, Spotify and RDIO. The service is set to launch tomorrow for the Xbox 360 and Oct. 26 for Windows 8 (coming pre-installed) and Windows Phone 8 devices. The service will also launch as an iOS app shortly after, GigaOm noted: Microsoft’s service will be for limited hours of free streaming after six months, so Spotify might not need to worry just yet....

Windows 10 Preview Build 19536 This next version is in the active development branch called RS_PreRelease. Which means its features could show up in the next 20H2 update. Or, they could be in the following one. Today’s announcement notes that “features in the active development branch may be slated for a future Windows 10 release, they are no longer matched to a specific Windows 10 release” Basically, the company is getting rid of the “Skip Ahead” ring and unifying everything as the “Fast” ring....

Windows 10 (RS5) Preview Build 17677 Microsoft Edge has a new redesigned “Settings and More” menu with options organized into groups, icons for each entry, and keyboard shortcuts. You can now view your top visited sites from the Edge Jump List on the taskbar or Start Menu. Today’s build also includes an easier way to organize groups of tabs you set aside in Edge. Mobile Broadband (LTE) connectivity continues to receive improvements including a Mobile Broadband USB driver based on NetAdapter framework that was introduced earlier in Build 17655....

Cumulative Update KB4501835 for Windows 10 1809 Here is the list of fixes and improvements included in today’s update: Addresses an issue that prevents the CALDATETIME structure from handling more than four Japanese Eras. For more information, see KB4469068.Updates the NLS registry to support the new Japanese Era. For more information, see KB4469068.Addresses an issue that causes the DateTimePicker to display the date incorrectly in the Japanese date format. For more information, see KB4469068....

Windows 10 RS 5 Build 17723 and Skip Ahead Build 18204 This latest build includes time and accuracy improvements that include Leap Second Support, Software Timestamping, and Precision Time Protocol. Also included are new features for the Mixed Reality Flashlight virtual experience, new Microsoft Edge Group Policies, and an improved Windows Update experience. And a new build wouldn’t be complete unless there were 157 new emoji included. In addition to the new features above, here is a list of the general improvements and fixes to expect for both of today’s new builds:...

Microsoft has made a variety of major announcements for Office 365 users on the Mac. With updates rolling out today, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for the Mac are all now optimized for Apple Silicon. The apps have also been redesigned with macOS Big Sur in mind, and more. Microsoft says users should notice major performance improvements when using the Office apps on M1 Macs. The Office apps are Universal, which means they also continue to run with the latest updates and features on Intel Macs as well....

Every hero in the MCU has a best friend who acts as a loyal sidekick. Tony Stark has James Rhodes, Thor has Heimdall, Rocket has Groot – everyone has their own buddy. But Steve Rogers is special in that he has two best friends. He grew up with Bucky Barnes, who was like a brother to him. Bucky seemingly died in World War II, and when Steve was frozen and then thawed out in the 21st century, he befriended a paramilitary veteran named Sam Wilson....

Considering its comparatively moderate pricing, Meet Edgar gives you an awful lot for your money. It has just one plan, which you can opt to pay monthly or annually. It does offer discounts to non-profit organizations and the military. This plan allows you to connect to 25 social profiles While not as fully featured as some others in the market, Meet Edgar is excellent for businesses that simply want to concentrate on queuing and delivering content, both yours and other interesting items you come across on the net....

Michael B. Jordan promises that if he were to play Superman, his version would remain authentic to comic book history. Known for his roles in Creed and Black Panther, Jordan has long been rumored as a potential Man of Steel. In 2018, Jordan’s name was floated for Superman, potentially succeeding Henry Cavill. In September, speculation had ramped up once again when fans learned that Jordan had met with DC to pitch a vision for the iconic character....

From 9to5Toys: (Update 12/22 11:19am): This post has now been updated with loads more iOS/Mac productivity apps including Tweetbot and Day One, along with a long list of new games. As usual at this time of year, just about every major app developer starts putting its best apps/games on sale for the holidays. We are even seeing massive year-end movie deals on iTunes. We are just days away from the price lock on the App Store, and we are already seeing a massive list of top-tier titles go on sale....

The company has also officially dubbed the seventh release of Windows 10 as “May 2019 Update” as its marketing name. And there was more new information out of Redmond that includes giving users more control over the updates. Here’s what you can expect. May 2019 Update Availability Microsoft announced that Windows 10 May Update would be available next week for Insiders in the Release Preview Ring. That’s the ring for builds that are near-final, safe, and hopefully won’t bork your PC....

Office 365 E5 Plan Features Advanced eDiscovery—Integrates Equivio machine learning, predictive coding and text analytics capabilities, to reduce the costs and challenges that come along with sorting through large quantities of data for eDiscovery purposes.Delve Analytics—Empowers individuals through rich dashboards that provide insights on time and relationships, with the goal of helping individuals get time back and spend it efficiently.Power BI—A business analytics service that enables information workers to visualize and analyze data with greater speed, efficiency, and understanding through live data dashboards, interactive reports, and compelling visualizations....

macOS Mojave was released to the public last month, and since then we’ve seen third-party apps slowly update to support the new Dark Mode interface. According to Microsoft Office product manager Akshay Bakshi, Microsoft Office will soon add support for a Dark Mode interface. While Bakshi’s original tweet only offered a teaser showing Microsoft Word’s navigation pane switch to Dark Mode, we can now get a full look at Microsoft PowerPoint’s Dark Mode interface....

Microsoft says it has been busy behind the curtains improving the performance and stability of the app along with work on localization, accessibility and other features, like the user interface. The new Outlook Android app comes with support for Office 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and IMAP providers like AOL.com, Comcast.net and others. Let’s have a look at the main features of the app: Manage your inbox – Outlook automatically triages your inbox for you, swipe to quickly delete, archive, or schedule messages, schedule emails and they will return to your inbox at a later time Calendar built-in – Outlook includes your calendar and notifies you with appointment reminders, find available meeting times and share them in email or schedule a meeting Attachments – view and attach any file from your email, OneDrive, Dropbox, and other accounts with just a few taps, send large files even if you haven’t downloaded them to your phone Find anything fast – filter your inbox to only show messages that are unread, flagged, or have attachments, with a single tap, quickly find the right messages, people and files by typing just a few letters, Outlook shows people you communicate with most often, and lets you conveniently drill down to see all related emails, meetings and files...

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709 Build 16299.402 While we still wait for Redstone 4 to be rolled out, Microsoft today released the second major update this month for Fall Creators Update. Here is a look at the extensive list of improvements and fixes: Addresses an issue that causes modern applications to reappear after upgrading the OS version even though those applications have been deprovisioned using remove-AppXProvisionedPackages-Online.Addresses an issue in which running an application as an administrator causes the application to stop working when pasting the user name or password into the user elevation prompt (LUA)....

Windows 10 Timeline Feature While the current Task View shows the thumbnails of your open apps and other items, Windows Timeline will show up to 30 days of past activity across devices. There is a new Task View icon located next to the Cortana search box in the lower-left corner of the taskbar. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + Tab to launch it. You will see the apps you have open at the top and below that, you see a list of activities you were doing in the past....

The personal version of Microsoft Teams is now available for friends and family members. This feature was teased nearly a year ago and it launched today for everyone. Microsoft Teams for personal use will offer free 24-hour video calls for up to 300 people in video calls that can last for 24 hours. The company says it will eventually enforce limits of 60 minutes for group calls of up to 100 people after the pandemic, but will keep 24-hour individual calls....