Outlook.com users might strike a problem connecting with Outlook for Windows or Mac which looks like a password problem but isn’t. Outlook.com may put a security block on your account. Most likely this happens if you login from a different location or country. To protect you, Outlook.com will restore the
Microsoft has released a 30 second ad to promote the Surface 4 computer and denigrate the iPad. The video makes some good points about Surface’s ability to run full Office for Windows and the important external ports for USB and video. It boasts that the Surface has a keyboard just
Microsoft has bought the Genee calendar system and promptly announced that it was being killed off. Genee customers have only until 1st September to move. Genee has some clever technology for setting up meetings with many people. It can check each calendar and suggest a time and place that works
Microsoft has now released new ‘all in one’ Authenticator apps for both iOS and Android devices. In our Windows 10, Office 2016 and Windows 8.1 books we have chapters on ‘Two factor authentication’ and its importance for Windows and Office users. The new app combines the authentication needs of Microsoft
Quick Steps is an Outlook for Windows (not Mac) feature that lets you combine common or oft-repeated actions into a single clickable icon. It can be a time saver. There’s no programming involved so you don’t have to worry about VBA or the Developer tab. The Quick Steps are very
The OneDrive app for Apple iOS devices now lets you create Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly. A small change but handy if you’re in the OneDrive app already. Tap the + icon at top left, then choose the type of document you want to make. The appropriate app will
If you’ve ever felt an overwhelming urge to scribble on your iPhone, Microsoft has updated their Office for iPhone apps just for you. After a strangely long delay, Office for iPhone apps now have the Draw options that are already available in the Office for Android apps. Tap on the
Congratulations to all the young people at the 15th annual Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships held earlier this month in Orlando, FL. The event pits 13- to 22-year-olds from around the world to test their skills in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This years winners are: Lai Tin Ming, age 16,
Microsoft has, too slowly, admitted that they allowed their supposedly ‘Secure Boot’ system to be bypassed with a special ‘golden key’ built into their system. Secure Boot is sold as a way to stop computers being compromised by hackers before Windows starts. It’s an important part of securing your computer
BleepingComputer has detailed a nasty little virus that copies all your Office documents and more to a hacker. It’s a clever little nastie which disguises itself as a Chrome browser add-on then goes to work sending to the hackers details like: Your name Computer name List of installed programs Version
Windows 8.1 is a perfectly good Windows release once you get rid of that silly full screen Start Menu*. Many people have decided to stay with Windows 8.1 and not switch to Windows 10. Despite all of Microsoft’s hype, that’s a perfectly reasonable choice. We’ve just released a Third Edition
Office 2016 for Mac users with Office 365 subscriptions have some new features heading towards them. They are now available for ‘slow ring’ insiders and will eventually be released publicly. Many of the innovations are similar to features recently added to other Office products. Office 2016 for Mac version v15.25
A worrying number of wireless keyboards from major companies can be hacked to grab passwords and other info from you. Keyboards from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Kensington and GE are vulnerable and there could be many others not tested. The broad problem is that the wireless connection is ‘in the
Microsoft has released their Excel REST API, a way for developers to use Excel functions within their programs. This might not seem like a big deal to most people but it open up the possibility of very interesting programs and apps in the future. It’s possible for a app to
You can add a calendar of Olympic events to your Outlook calendars to help schedule your TV watching. As usual, people have converted the Rio events into a computer readable format that can be imported into calendar programs like Microsoft Outlook. There’s no official web calendar from either the organizers
Office 365 customers have various choices for installing Office for Windows or Mac. The default is Office for Windows 32-bit. The Office 365 web site gives you Windows or Mac options plus language variant depending on the computer you’re using (i.e. it picks up the operating system and language from
There’s a security hole in Internet Explorer, the Windows 10 Edge browser and Microsoft Outlook that Microsoft knows about but apparently won’t fix. It’s a long standing bug called Xml eXternal Entities (XXE) but it’s become news again because hackers are using it to grab Microsoft account logins. Microsoft encourages
Office Insiders are starting to get a look at some new features coming in Office for Windows. At the moment these features are for the beta testers (aka Office insiders) and come with little help and no support. Here’s what’s coming, with our look at them in practice. Researcher in
If you want a copy of Office 2011 for Mac on your Office 365 subscription, you’ve only got until 22 September 2016 (about 6 weeks away) to get it. On your Office 365 account install web page there’s an option Install previous version. Click on that link to get Office
There’s only a day to go before the free upgrade to Windows 10 ends. After that you’ll have to pay US$119 (UK£99) to get Windows 10. How to Geek has a useful guide to reserving a free copy of Windows 10 now for use later. There are various ways to
Windows 10 ‘Anniversary’ update is being released, free, to the public next week. Be ready for this major change to Windows 10 with Windows 10 for Microsoft Office users. Our popular ebook has been fully and extensively updated for the Anniversary edition of Windows 10. The book is available NOW,
Outlook Windows/Mac blocks images linked in emails, so does Gmail (in browser) as an option. Why? And why is it best to leave the block on except when needed? The image block does seem to be a nuisance. Outlook shows rectangles where images should go and a message you can
About the special ‘Hidden info’ image included in Office for Mere Mortals. As part of an article on Outlook security Office-Watch.com made a special ‘image’ that displays, within an email, some system information sent by Outlook to the Internet. This image was included in Office for Mere Mortals for Monday
The Q4 earning report for Microsoft is out with continued good news for Office 365 and Office. There are now over 23 million Office 365 consumer subscribers, up from 15.2 million a year ago. That’s in addition to the business users including new arrival, Facebook. There are now 90,000 ‘partners’
