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Author: Taras Buria

Taras is here to cover stories about Microsoft and everything around, although sometimes he prefers Apple.

Microsoft Office 2021 is coming on October 5, 2021

In less than three weeks, on October 5, 2021, Microsoft is launching its next generation of Windows, but that is not the only product the Software giant is about to ship. Alongside Windows 11, Microsoft will launch Office 2021 - the next perpetual version of the Office apps that does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Microsoft released an updated Tips app for Windows 11

Alongside build 22458 in the Dev channel, Microsoft released a new version of the Tips app. The update brings redesigned UI and more than a hundred tips and tricks to help you get acquainted with the latest operating system from Microsoft. After updating the app, you will find different categories with a brief explanation of each tip and an animation to show it in action.

The latest Windows 11 Preview builds enforce TPM requirements

The latest Windows 11 preview build from the Dev channel does not bring many exciting features. In fact, the only visible change (the "Sign-in Options" button in the power menu) is confusingly available in previous builds. What is more important is the fact that build 22458 flags your Windows 11 installation as incompatible if your computer or a virtual machine has no TPM 2.0 according to Windows 11 hardware requirements.

Microsoft makes passwords optional for personal accounts

Microsoft has been pushing password-less experiences since 2015 when the company introduced Windows 10. The company offers Windows Hello as a better, more secure way to sign in into Windows, apps, and accounts. Also, Microsoft continuously tries to encourage users to opt for its Authenticator app for improved security. The main pitch is that regular passwords are insecure in the modern world and too easy to crack using various techniques. Also, many people tend to use a single password for many accounts, which further increases the risks of identity theft and data loss. Microsoft Authenticator and Windows Hello are safer, more reliable, and plain less annoying.

Microsoft ends Silverlight support on October 12, 2021

In 2007, Microsoft introduced Silverlight - a framework for developing rich web applications, similar to how Adobe Flash operates. Apart from offering Silverlight for media streaming services (Netflix used Silverlight before ditching it in favor of HTML5 in 2013), Microsoft used it as one of the development platforms for now-deceased Windows Phone. Just like the latter bit the dust in 2015, Microsoft is now ending support for Silverlight. The company announced its plans to pull the plug on Silverlight on October 12, 2021.

You can now stream games from the new Xbox consoles to Windows 10

Inability to stream games from a local console to a Windows 10 PC was a strange omission in the newest consoles from Microsoft. While the Xbox One generation can stream games to your computer, Microsoft launched Xbox Series X|S without that convenient feature. Still, Microsoft promised to bring local streaming to those owning the latest generation of Xbox consoles. Almost a year after the initial release, Microsoft finally delivered the promised feature.

Microsoft does not plan to support Windows 11 on M1-based Macs

Apple no longer supports BootCamp on ARM-based Macbooks, but users remain free to run Windows 10 or Windows 11 side-by-side with macOS. There is plenty of virtualization software to use Windows within macOS, such as VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop. If you plan to use Windows 11 in a virtual machine on your M1-based Mac, there is some unfortunate news for you. In a statement to The Register, Microsoft confirmed that it does not plan to provide official support for Windows 11 in virtual machines, and using Windows 11 on software, such as Parallels Desktop, is not "a supported scenario."

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