Windows

Hey Minecraft fans: Escape Estate – this year's free Hour of Code lesson – is here. Use the power of code to solve puzzles, open trap doors in a mysterious mansion and reveal hidden clues. Escape by dawn and earn a million emeralds. To get started, download the Minecraft: Education Edition and set a goal of doing an Hour of Code a day. If you're a teacher, find out how to get the lesson plan and take a free course, or register your class to attend a live Hour of Code workshop with a guest teacher offered at multiple times during CS Ed Week, Dec 5–11. Watch the video and find out about it all on the Minecraft: Education Edition page. Continue reading...

Today, we are pleased to announce the start of availability of an exciting new feature. iCloud Photos is now directly integrated into the Photos app on Windows 11 and is beginning to roll out today via a Microsoft Store update to the Photos app. We expect it to be available to all Windows 11 customers by end of the month. The recently updated Photos app on Windows 11 has been thoughtfully crafted to make organization of your photo collection easy, no matter where your photos and videos come from — your phone, your camera, your cloud storage: iCloud Photos, OneDrive1 — see them all together in one gorgeous gallery. We know that many Windows customers have photo and video collections on their iPhones that they would like to be able to...

For Dr. Alper Kaya, the darkest days of his life happened about 10 years after he found out he had ALS. Based in Turkey, the ophthalmologist felt fortunate in that the disease progressed slowly, after the initial diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1990. He could still perform surgeries, help patients and play classical guitar – one of the constants in his life, ever since he was a teenager. After about a decade, he lost the use of his hands to do those things he loved. He lost hope, too. At the time, it felt unbearable. But with the help of his daughter, he found other ways to make music again. Assistive technology gave him the ability to blow into a MIDI wind controller (“a hands-free electronic, breath-powered instrument”)...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.885 and Build 22623.885 (KB5020054) to the Beta Channel. Build 22623.885= New features rolling out. Build 22621.885 = New features off by default. REMINDER: Insiders who were previously on Build 22622 will automatically get moved to Build 22623 via an enablement package. The enablement package artificially increments the build number for the update with new features getting rolled out and turned on to make it easier to differentiate from devices with the update with features off by default. This approach is being used for the Beta Channel only and is not indicative of any changes or plans for final feature rollouts. Insiders who landed in the group...

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25236 to the Dev Channel. TL;DR This build has a set of improvements as well as some additional known issues – please be sure to read through the blog post below. Insider Windows 11 Season 2 continues with episode 2 featuring the latest security features in the Windows 11 2022 Update. We are rolling out a new Microsoft Store update with several improvements – details below. Changes and Improvements [General] To improve the value of Search shortcuts and reduce friction in the broader Windows Search experience, we are trying out different ways to provide tips on how to use Windows Search via the taskbar. Only some English-speaking Windows Insiders in the...