Consumer Reports Asks Microsoft To Extend Windows 10 Support

By DustinPosted on

Consumer Reports advocacy division has written a letter to Sadya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, to extend the support of Windows 10 beyond the cut off date of October 14. The cut off date has been known for several years and has crept up on many. There’s been a lot of discussion on the topic and many do agree that support needs to continue. The authors of the letter, Stacey Higginbotham and Justin Brookman, have some very solid and convincing points (with excellent statistics and references).

I know many people like that the latest operating system is utilizing the latest security features in modern PC’s, but without some kind of bridge between supported and unsupported hardware, it’s leaving a lot of people behind with older yet still very capable hardware (just not officially supported with Windows 11, but works without any issues with unofficial workarounds) that otherwise could run it. Stopping all support for Windows 10 outside of paid support (or the mentioned “buy more Microsoft products or use Bing Rewards to get free support) is just a solid stop for users.

This is a very well written letter that hopefully gets some attention from the CEO and possibly some changes from the company. Many enterprises have already migrated to Windows 11 or are in the process of migrating, leaving a lot of home users affected with newer computers that just cannot run the latest OS.

Link to the Consumer Reports post (the link to download or view the letter is on that post, as I don’t want to directly link to a PDF).

The decision to make Windows 11 incompatible with existing hardware, and to do so with only
four years notice is incompatible with consumer expectations and Microsoft’s own history.
Microsoft has long focused on backwards compatibility for Windows, ensuring it can run on
older hardware. This means that consumers could expect to be able to run the latest version of
Windows for at least a dozen years and maybe more. If you bought a PC with Windows 7
preinstalled in 2010, you were able to upgrade it to Windows 8 in 2012 and then Windows 10 in
2015, and many of those devices can still run Windows 10 in 2025.

Microsoft 6502 BASIC Source Code Released

By DustinPosted on

I love when multiple hobbies come together. Microsoft has released the source code for their BASIC language for the MOS 6502 processor. I’ve been working on a small 6502 based computer (and old style 8-bit video game console, but that’s more complicated due to the graphics processing), and it’ll be fun to be able to utilize a good BASIC. There’s already some options out there, but it’ll be fun to try out and run the early Micro-Soft BASIC from 1978. Only utilizing 8K of space. I’m probably a bit rusty with my BASIC skills, but I can still get some good things done!

Cool stuff with it, with notes from Bill Gates included. Always neat to see how it was done and how simple and also complex things can be. The ASM is just fun to look through even if you don’t understand all or any of it, the comments are pretty interesting themselves.

This is BASIC M6502 8K VER 1.1, the 6502 BASIC lineage that powered an era of home computing and formed the foundation of Commodore BASIC in the PET, VIC-20, and the legendary Commodore 64. This very source tree also contains adaptations for the Apple II (“Applesoft BASIC”), built from the same core BASIC source. The original headers still read, “BASIC M6502 8K VER 1.1 BY MICRO-SOFT”—a time capsule from 1978.

The version we are releasing here—labeled “1.1”—contains fixes to the garbage collector identified by Commodore and jointly implemented in 1978 by Commodore engineer John Feagans and Bill Gates, when Feagans traveled to Microsoft’s Bellevue offices. This is the version that shipped as the PET’s “BASIC V2.” It even contains a playful Bill Gates Easter egg, hidden in the labels STORDO and STORD0, which Gates himself confirmed in 2010.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27764 (Canary Channel)

By DustinPosted on

A new build for Windows 11 Insiders in the Canary build has been released, bringing us to build 27764. Some little new improvements, some fixes for those having issues in the past, and some new issues are introduced. As usual, these are the earliest builds you can get for Insiders so there are going to be issues for some people and some things may not work as expected. If you’re not able or ready to have some issues, it’s best to go with a more stable channel.

The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.

Sharing Files Between iPhone and Windows

By DustinPosted on

A new feature is rolling out for Windows Insiders which allows the Phone Link application to sync files between your iPhone and Windows. I’ve been using the Phone Link application and it’s been pretty helpful with keeping a single platform yet staying connected with my other devices. This will be very handy when moving files, photos, etc. around on the phone and PC. I’m excited to try this new feature out!

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27758 (Canary Channel)

By DustinPosted on

A new Canary Build has dropped for Windows 11 Insiders. Some good fixes, and some known issues that aren’t resolved yet.

Known issues

[General]

  • [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”.
  • We’re investigating reports that some Insiders are still experiencing rollbacks (with error code 0xc190010) when attempting to install the latest Canary builds.
  • We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue causing accent colored window borders to not be not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations to show even though the setting to show animations is turned off.
  • [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with error PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA starting with the previous flight.

TPM 2.0 Non-Negotiable in Windows 11

By DustinPosted on

In a recent post by Microsoft, they have hinted that the current workarounds (which are also not supported nor recommended by Microsoft) may be going away. With the “non-negotiable” requirement for TPM 2.0 to be implemented on the hardware, those workarounds may be closed in the near future.

You can read the blog post to understand why it is going to be this way going forward and is a part of Microsoft’s focus on security on the desktop. The post is aimed at IT professionals, but the requirement will be for Windows 11 as a whole and not just for the enterprise.

By instituting TPM 2.0 as a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows, we elevate the security benchmark. It allows you and us to better align with the growing need for formidable data protection in the modern digital sphere.

Microsoft the Target of FTC Antitrust Investigation

By DustinPosted on

The US Federal Trade Commission has started investigating Microsoft (again) for possible unfair business practices as well as several other issues. Some are related to the July incident involving Crowdstrike, which helped show that Microsoft has a dominance in the PC and IT industry, running many enterprises, from manufacturing to transportation to news and everything in between.

With Microsoft’s cloud offerings having multiple services bundled with their licensing (E5 can get you a lot of services), from basic AI to security to Office 365 (email, Word, Excel, etc.), Teams, Sharepoint, the list goes on. Some say that having so many things in a single offering could be unfair for competition as well as a single point of failure.

The initial news story comes from Bloomberg, and Microsoft and the FTC have declined to comment (as usual with legal things, not out of the ordinary). In the past, Microsoft has faced scrutiny from bundling their web browser with their operating system, monopoly, among others.

In a November 2023 report, the FTC highlighted concerns that the concentrated nature of the cloud market means that “outages, or other issues that degrade the service of a cloud provider, could have a cascading impact on the economy or specific sectors.”

The CrowdStrike crash that affected millions of devices operating on Microsoft Windows systems earlier this year was itself a testament to the widespread use of the company’s products and how it directly affects the global economy.

 

Microsoft Does NOT Scape M365 Data For AI Training

By DustinPosted on

After several claims by folks that there is a ‘hidden’ opt-out option for Microsoft Office to scrape your data for use in it’s AI training, Microsoft has come out and cleared the air. It is NOT used for AI training, but for features that require an internet connection like co-authoring a document. I have to agree with the first reply on the @Microsoft365 Twitter post.

I am sure a more official news post from Microsoft will bring more details in the near future rather than a single Twitter post.

Microsoft Outage Affects Outlook, Teams, and Sharepoint

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft is suffering an outage that is affecting Outlook, Teams, and Sharepoint that has lasted for several hours. They have updated on the X platform about resolution efforts. They will update as they work through the issue to bring services back to a fully operational state.

There are many reports on DownDetector.com as well as people noticing it in their enterprise this morning as they logged in, like myself. They’ve  been deploying a fix but it has been slow going and having delays.

 

Windows 11 24H2 Update Blocked for Breaking USB Scanners and Printers

By DustinPosted on

A second post today for a similar block in Windows 11 version 24H2, this time it’s blocking the update for users that utilize the eSCL scan protocol. As before, they have put a compatibility hold on the update until they have a fix available.

If you have a device that uses an eSCL protocol, which can also include printers, fax machines, modems, and network devices, along with scanners, you may not get this update yet. If you already have it and are having issues it may be caused by the 24H2 update and a roll back could fix the issue.

After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might experience issues discovering USB connected devices that support the eSCL (eScanner Communication Language) scan protocol. You might observe that your device does not discover the USB connected peripheral and the device discovery does not complete. This issue primarily affects USB-connected multifunction devices or standalone scanners that support scan functionality and the eSCL protocol.

eSCL is a driverless scanning protocol designed for networked scanners. It enables driverless scanning over a network (Ethernet, Wi-Fi) and USB connections. This issue is caused due to the device not switching out of eSCL mode to USB mode, which allows the scanner drivers to be matched.