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Microsoft Office is getting a simple little video editor
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Microsoft is adding a video editor to its mobile app for Office that will allow users to create more than just documents using its office software.

According to a new post in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, a simple video editor will begin rolling out to the Office mobile app for Android beginning this month.

Microsoft's new video editor in Office will enable users to create short video clips and of course edit them before sharing them with the people in their network.

While there are already plenty of video editing apps for Android such as KineMaster and PowerDirector, the company's new update for Office will make it possible for its customers to create short video clips using an app they already have installed on their Android smartphones without the need to download additional software.

Stock Images

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Premium creative content

If you're looking to add a bit of visual flair to your projects in Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, last year Microsoft announced the addition of premium creative content to Office. With this feature, Microsoft 365 uses can easily add high quality, curated images, stickers and icons to both their personal and professional flies. 

To get started, simply select Insert, scroll down to Pictures and click on the Stock Images option. From here, you'll be able to pick from a wide variety of content in addition to stock images including Cutout People, Icons and Stickers.

Microsoft also recently added Cartoon People in Office to allow users to create artwork and tell stories using a diverse set of characters and scenery. Cartoon People can be found in the premium content library under Icons and they can easily add a bit more to your documents and presentations.

While Microsoft Office is nowhere close to Adobe's Creative Cloud, the addition of a video editor and premium creative content in the software giant's office software makes it possible for users to channel their inner visual creativity in a place where they wouldn't normally expect to be able to do so.

We've also rounded up the best online collaboration tools, best free office software and best productivity tools

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Microsoft Teams meeting are about to become a whole lot more cinematic
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Microsoft is working on a new update for its video conferencing software that will allow organizations with supported devices to use multiple cameras in Microsoft Teams.

There is a catch though as this new multiple camera feature will only work on select Microsoft Teams Rooms devices.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Teams Rooms is a dedicated hardware and software solution for video conferencing that was previously called Skype Rooms. Microsoft Teams Rooms devices include headsets, speakerphones, desk phones and Teams displays, collaboration bars, webcams and more.

According to a new post on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, this feature is currently in development and is slated to roll out to Microsoft Teams Rooms devices like the Surface Hub 2S in January of next year.

Switching between multiple cameras

Once this new feature is available, organizations that have a meeting or conference room with more than one video camera connected to Microsoft Teams Rooms will be able to switch between them while in a video call.

To do so, they'll need to click on the icon that depicts an arrow going through a rectangle at the bottom of a Teams meeting to see a list of available cameras. From here, they'll be able to switch between cameras seamlessly without interrupting their meeting.

As more devices have built-in cameras than ever before, this new update to Microsoft Teams Rooms will allow organizations to take advantage of them. Some possible use cases include being able to switch between a wide group shot and having one individual on camera as well as being able to give attendees a close up view of a product or design.

Now that Microsoft is adding multiple camera support to Microsoft Teams Rooms, the company could eventually add this same functionality to regular Teams meetings so that individuals can also give their meetings more of a cinematic feel.

Looking to improve your video calls? Check out our roundups of the best video conferencing software, best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls

Via ONMSFT

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Hate Windows 11? Microsoft is trying to fix it
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Since launching a few months ago, Windows 11 has had a bit of a mixed reception, with several bugs – and even deliberate design decisions – annoying users. Now it looks like Microsoft is looking to address some of these issues.

As The Verge reports, a new update that’s rolling out to Windows Insiders – users who’ve signed up to help test early versions of Windows – has added the clock and date to the taskbar on multiple monitors.

Many users who have more than one monitor had complained that the date and time wasn’t shown on the taskbar in their secondary monitors – only the main one. This may sound like a small complaint, but it annoyed a lot of people. It led some to use third-party apps to bring the time and date back, but now it looks like Microsoft will be including an official option to add time and date info to multiple monitors.

Start me up

The Verge also reports that a new Insider build – it's not clear if the update and the new build are the same thing – is tweaking the Windows 11 Start menu, giving users more configuration options regarding pinned app shortcuts and recommendations.

The Start menu is one of the most-used elements of Windows, which means people can be very protective over it. Any changes Microsoft makes to how it works could annoy a lot of people – which is what happened with Windows 8 – and Windows 11 also brought some unwelcome changes.

The Settings app has also been expanded to offer more options that you’d usually find in Control Panel, including network discovery and printer sharing. This is part of Microsoft’s ambition to phase out Control Panel, which has been a part of Windows since Windows 1.0 back in 1985, and replace it with the modern Settings app.

Of course, removing a feature that some people have been using for 36 years could once again cause friction between Microsoft and its customers. It’ll need to proceed with caution – which it appears to be doing with the slow migration of tools from Control Panel to the Settings app.

stressed businessman destroying his desk and laptop with a baseball bat

(Image credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock)

Analysis: righting wrongs

When Windows 11 launched, a number of changes the operating system made over its predecessor, Windows 10, frustrated many users.

To Microsoft’s credit, it has been listening to feedback, and for some of its more controversial changes, it's added options that allow users to revert to the way things worked in Windows 10. This is undoubtedly a good thing, as it gives users more choice as to how they use Windows 11, rather than just undoing any changes; after all, there will be some people who like the changes Windows 11 brings.

There’s still work to be done, however. Some of Windows 11’s most annoying – and baffling – changes, such as the inability to drag and drop app shortcuts onto the taskbar, have yet to be addressed, though it does appear that Microsoft is working on a solution to that.

As we observed in our Windows 11 review, the new operating system feels like a work in progress, and that's a positive thing. So if there’s something about Windows 11 you don’t like, be patient, as Microsoft may look to change it in an upcoming update.

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This all-new version of Microsoft Teams will take over your working life
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Small businesses will now be able to utilise video conferencing software and online collaboration tool much easier with the launch of the first ever stand-alone version of Microsoft Teams.

Available now, Teams Essentials provides small businesses with an affordable meeting solution that is ideal for hybrid work environments. At just $ 4 per user per month, the software giant's new offering is one of the most competitively priced video conferencing and collaboration solutions on the market today.

“We know how difficult the past 20 months have been for small businesses,” noted Microsoft's corporate vice president of Modern Work, Jared Spataro. “They’ve had to demonstrate extreme flexibility to adapt, often with limited access to tools and technology. Teams Essentials is built specifically to meet the unique needs of small businesses, enabling them to thrive in this new era of work.”

Microsoft Teams Essentials

SMBs that sign up for Teams Essentials will be able to hold unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours and meetings with up to 300 people but they'll also get access to 10GB of cloud storage per user.

Teams Essentials also includes all of the existing and upcoming capabilities available in the free version of Teams such as easy invitations that only require an email address, Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar integration, virtual backgrounds, Together mode, always-available chats, polls and more.

Small businesses interested in purchasing Teams Essentials subscriptions for their employees can do so directly through the Teams website or from a variety of Microsoft Cloud Partners including ALSO, Crayon, Ingram, Pax8, Rhipe, TD Synnex, Telefonica (ES), Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone (IT) and Wortmann AG.

While Teams Essentials makes sense for small businesses that want to continue using their existing office software, for just $ 1 more at $ 5 per user per month, they can sign up for Microsoft 365 Business Basic which also includes access to the web and mobile versions of Microsoft's Office apps, 1TB of cloud storage per user, business-class email, Teams meetings recordings with transcripts and more.

Looking to improve your video calls? Check out our roundups of the best video conferencing software, best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls

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Microsoft Teams update will make your life harder, but for good reason
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Microsoft is set to roll out an update for collaboration platform Teams that will add a layer of friction to using third-party app integrations, but for good reason.

According to a new entry in the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft Teams users will soon have to manage permissions manually for each third-party app they want to use via the web client.

“In order to better secure Microsoft Teams third-party applications that request native device permissions – such as camera, microphone or location access – we will be requiring users to manually opt-in for these permissions per app in the Microsoft Teams web browser experience,” wrote Microsoft.

This is already the case across the Microsoft Teams desktop and mobile clients, the roadmap entry goes on to explain.

The new web client permissions system is still under development, but should take effect for all users by February next year.

Microsoft Teams apps

Since the start of the pandemic, collaboration software vendors like Microsoft, Zoom and Slack have worked hard to expand upon in-built functionality (video conferencing, VoIP, messaging, file-sharing etc.) with third-party integrations.

In Microsoft’s case, the company is aiming to turn Teams into a central hub for work, by building as wide a range of functionality into the platform as possible, from cloud storage and CRM to project management, calendering and more.

Only last week, Microsoft revealed it is developing a new-look app store that should make it easier to identify the most useful third-party integrations on a per user basis.

As the number of Teams applications grows, however, the likelihood one might be abused for cybercriminal purposes rises too. To nip any potential issues in the bud, Microsoft will soon require users to manually specify app permissions across all Teams clients (desktop, mobile and now browser).

Of course, the measure won’t stop users from giving malicious apps access to their webcam and audio feed, but at the very least it will force people to think twice about which apps they engage with.

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Microsoft Teams might finally be worth using in Windows 11
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Microsoft has released a new preview build of Windows 11 that makes it even easier to share content from other apps to Microsoft Teams with attendees while in a meeting.

With the release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22499 to the software giant's Dev Channel, Microsoft is rolling out a new feature that allows Teams users to quickly share content from open app windows directly from Windows 11's taskbar to their video calls.

This new update builds on another recently released feature that introduced the ability to quickly mute and unmute active meeting calls right from the taskbar.

By making it easier to share content during Teams calls, Microsoft will eliminate the need to switch back and forth between apps just to share or reshare a window. With less interruptions, meeting attendees will have a much easier time focusing on their meetings in Teams.

Sharing open windows in Teams

Windows 11 Insiders can now test out this feature after downloading the latest preview build of Microsoft's new operating system.

When in a meeting in Microsoft Teams, users can share content from their open windows by hovering over the apps in their taskbar. A new “Share this window” button will appear underneath an app's preview and by clicking on it, they can share their open windows with other attendees in a video call. By hovering over the window again and clicking “Stop Sharing”, users can stop Teams from showing content on their PC or they can also choose another window to share content from it instead.

This new feature also works while presenting full screen presentations in PowerPoint and by moving your mouse to the bottom, the taskbar will pop up so that users can share or stop sharing their presentations without interrupting attendees.

According to a new blog post from Microsoft, the company is rolling out this new feature to a subset of Windows Insiders with Teams for work or school installed though it will be rolled out to even more users at a later date. The software giant also plans to bring this functionality to Chat from Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Teams for Home) at a later date.

Looking to improve your video calls? Check out our roundups of the best video conferencing software, best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls

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Microsoft Edge is bombarding people with ads
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Advertisements have begun appearing in  the lower right corner of Microsoft Edge following a recent update to Microsoft's browser.

These ads or recommendations are for service such as Microsoft Start according to a new report from Windows Latest. For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Start is a rebranded MSN feed that provides users with “personalized trusted news, plus games, weather and more – all in one app”.

Apparently Microsoft has begun experimenting with showing more ads and recommendations that appear when a user opens the New Tab Page in its browser. While they can be distracting and somewhat annoying, these pop-ups can be easily dismissed by clicking on the “Maybe later” button.

At the same time, Microsoft appears to be using its new Assistance from Microsoft Edge feature to collect search results from users in an effort to improve its Bing search engine. While the data collected by the software giant isn't associated with users or their devices, not everyone wants to hand over their search data even if doing so does help improve their preferred search engine.

Office integration

Microsoft is also testing out a new Office integration for its browser that will allow users to access Microsoft 365 apps directly from Edge.

On the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel, the company has added a new option called “New Office Tab” to the browser's context menu that can be accessed by right-clicking on an open window. This new feature will allow users to open Word, PowerPoint and Excel directly in Edge without having to leave the browser.

It also appears that Microsoft's new Office integration won't be exclusive to Microsoft 365 subscribers and anyone with a Microsoft account will be able to take advantage of it. However, just like with “Read Aloud”, “Add page to Collections” and the other options in the context menu, users won't be able to disable it.

As Microsoft's new Office integration is currently being tested out in Edge Canary, it likely won't be long until this feature comes to the stable version of the company's browser.

Looking to protect your privacy while browsing the web? Check out our roundup of the best VPN services and our list of the best anonymous browsers

Via Windows Latest

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Microsoft Teams is finally getting the update you’ve all been waiting for
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Working together with others outside your organization in Microsoft Teams will soon be possible thanks to a new update to Microsoft's online collaboration tool.

Workgroups often extend beyond one's organization with employees connecting with multiple external stakeholders including customers, vendors and partners. However, up until now, users had to rely on different software or even personal apps to collaborate with them.

Not only does this require employees to use multiple apps which takes longer and can reduce their productivity, it also creates security risks for both workers and their companies.

For this reason, Microsoft is currently working on two updates that leverage Microsoft Teams Connect and the secure access capabilities of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to make cross-organizational collaboration easier for businesses.

Cross-organizational collaboration

The first update involves shared channels which allow individuals and teams across multiple organizations to work together in Microsoft Teams. When this feature becomes available in preview early next year, shared channels will appear within each Member's Teams tenant alongside other teams and channels. 

Users will also be able to schedule a shared channel meeting, use other Microsoft apps like Office and share each channel with up to 50 teams and as many organizations as they need.  Meanwhile, admins can use cross-tenant access settings in Azure AD to configure granular and differentiated trust relationships for external collaboration with different organizations.

Microsoft is also working on another update scheduled to rollout by the end of this year that will enable Teams users to chat with others outside their network including those using Teams personal accounts. They'll be able to invite any Teams user to chat using an email address or phone number while remaining within the security and compliance policies of their organization.

Cross-organizational collaboration is the Teams update many users have been waiting for as it will allow Microsoft's collaboration tool and video conferencing software to become a one-stop-shop for all of their business dealings both internally and externally.

Looking to improve your Microsoft Teams experience? Check out our roundups of the best business webcams, best headsets for conference calls and best video conferencing software

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Microsoft shows why Windows 11 needs TPM – even if some PCs are left out in the cold
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Windows 11 security is something of a hot topic, as the revamped OS comes with much tighter defenses than Windows 10, but with the side-effect of creating controversy and confusion on the system requirements front (and indeed for gamers – more on that later).

However, Microsoft recently produced a video to show how Windows 11’s new protective measures – which include TPM (Trusted Platform Module), Secure Boot and VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) – help to make systems safer against hackers. Furthermore, it reminds us these moves are an extension of what was already happening with Windows 10 (but crucially, not on a compulsory level).

The clip stars Microsoft’s security expert Dave Weston who explains more about why this higher level of security, which entails the aforementioned raised hardware requirements – including support for TPM 2.0, which rules out a fair number of not-all-that-old PCs – is required to defend against some potentially nasty security breaches.

Weston shows how this nastiness could play out in real world situations, first of all demonstrating a remote attack leveraging an open RDP (remote desktop protocol) port, brute forcing the password, and then infecting the machine with ransomware. This was on a PC without TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, and naturally, wouldn’t be possible on a Windows 11 system.

The second attack used for demo purposes is an in-person one using a PCI Leech device to access system memory and bypass fingerprint recognition to login. VBS stops this kind of attack being leveraged against a Windows 11 system, and the former remote attack is prevented by UEFI, Secure Boot and Trusted Boot (in conjunction with TPM).

Analysis: Land of confusion

This is an interesting look at the nuts-and-bolts of how these security countermeasures work against real life attacks. Clearly, in some scenarios there are good reasons for mandating TPM and the other mentioned security technologies to help keep a PC safer against a possible attack, whether that’s a remote or local intrusion.

No one is going to argue against better protection, but the issue with making these pieces of security tech a compulsory part of the system requirements is the confusion around whether or not a PC has these capabilities.

In some cases, newer machines do indeed have TPM on-board, it just isn’t enabled – leading to a frustrating situation where the owner of a modern device could be told it isn’t compatible with Windows 11. And while it might just be a case of switching TPM on, which isn’t difficult for a reasonably tech-savvy person, it could be very intimidating for a novice user (involving a trip to the BIOS, a scary place for the untrained eye).

VBS or Virtualization-Based Security has run into further controversy, as well, given that while this isn’t an issue for upgraders from Windows 10, it will be enabled by default on new PCs that come with Windows 11 – and it causes slowdown with gaming frame rates. By all accounts, VBS can be a pretty serious headwind for frame rates, too; and again, this adds to the confusion around what’s going on with Windows 11 machines in general.

Having a more secure PC is great, without a doubt, but there are costs here which have a potentially negative impact on the experience of some users adopting (or trying to adopt) Windows 11.

Via Neowin

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