windows

Microsoft Surface launches a warranty primed for schools and education Microsoft was founded on the principle that people can do remarkable things when technology is within reach. Core to our mission – to empower every student on the planet to achieve more – is working with educators, with students, and with school leaders on their journey to redefine learning. And we continue to be inspired by the ways our Surface devices are helping to drive that transformation. Students like Kody Peralta are changing the way they learn and schools like Franklin Classical Middle School are changing the way the teach. Over the last 24 months, we’ve seen great demand for Surface in education, which has nearly doubled its presence in classrooms around the world. Bringing the power of Surface devices to the classroom also means creating flexible and robust warranty [ more… ]

Evernote and more powerful desktop apps available in the Windows Store A few months ago at Build 2016, we announced the Desktop Bridge, which lets developers bring their existing desktop apps and games over to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). This allows the app or game to reach all Windows 10 devices over time, including phones, Xbox One and HoloLens. Today, we’re excited to welcome these new, rich, fully featured desktop apps to the Windows Store for Windows 10 customers running the Anniversary Update, including the popular notetaking app, Evernote! Here’s what’s been updated in the all-new Evernote app for Windows 10. “We’re excited to bring the full-featured Evernote app to the Windows Store. By using the Desktop Bridge to build the app we have now enabled new Windows 10 specific features like Live Tiles and notifications. The Windows Store [ more… ]

Accessibility and your app design Accessibility is about making your app usable to the largest possible audience. For some apps, accessibility is required by law. For others, it’s part of the service you are offering to a specific audience and a way to make your app more generally appealing. Choosing to incorporate accessibility features is a good idea no matter what your motivation. Thinking about accessibility, in turn, will help you to become a better designer because you will be considering the user experience much more broadly for a greater variety of users. Be accessible Accessibility options include features relating to mobility, vision, color perception, hearing, speech, cognition and literacy. However, you can address most requirements by providing: support for keyboard interactions and screen readers support for user customization, such as font, zoom setting (magnification), color, and high-contrast settings alternatives [ more… ]

Blocking out-of-date Flash ActiveX controls Note: Customers running Windows Server 2012R2, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 are not impacted by this change. By default, Windows Update will automatically install important Flash updates as they become available for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge on those systems. Starting on October 11, 2016, we’re expanding the out-of-date ActiveX control blocking feature to include outdated versions of Adobe Flash Player. This update notifies you when a Web page tries to load a Flash ActiveX control older than (but not including): Adobe Flash Player version 21.0.0.198 Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release version 18.0.0.241 You can continue to view the complete list of out-of-date ActiveX controls being blocked by this feature here. Supported configurations and scope of out-of-date Flash ActiveX control blocking Unlike out-of-date Java and Silverlight blocking, the following caveats are additionally applicable to out-of-date [ more… ]