Microsoft is ending their VPN part of Microsoft 365 Defender for no good reason. At the end of February 2025, the VPN (Virtual Private Network) service in Microsoft Defender for individuals will be stopped. Microsoft reason is a typically contradictory word salad that means nothing: “Our goal is to ensure
There’s important change in the way Microsoft handles browser logins to Microsoft accounts. If you’re using someone else’s computer or a public terminal, you need to know about this new security hole. Whenever you’ve signed into a Microsoft account for a web site, you’ve almost certainly seen this box. Stay
There’s another expensive trap when buying Microsoft 365 Family or Personal with automatic renewal from a Microsoft “partner” like Amazon, Best Buy or computer retailer. An Office Watch reader fell into this trap but found a way out. For years we’ve warned against buying Microsoft 365 from companies like Amazon
With help from major retailers, Microsoft has another way to make people pay more for Microsoft 365 Family or Personal. Amazon and Best Buy and other offer Microsoft 365 renewals charging full price for the first and later years. Ever since Microsoft 365 plans started, Microsoft has enticed people with
Stopping predictive text in Word 365 for Windows, Mac or Web is quite simple, once you know where the switch is hiding. We’ll go beyond that to explain all you need to know because the basic tip doesn’t tell the whole story. Predictive Text adds some suggested text ahead of
Word’s grammar checker is good, very good but it’s not perfect. Here’s the latest example of wrong advice under that blue underline. Office Watch reader, Simone J from Berlin sent us this English language anomaly in Word. “Your Latin and calligraphy skills are some of the best I’ve even seen”
The popular employee discount program for Microsoft 365 (Workplace Discount Program or Home Use Program) has some changes in 2025 at the same time as the price rise and Copilot addition to the Family and Personal plans. Office Watch compares the two options with a suggestion about what to do.
Calculating a simple percentage increase in Excel seems simple but, as usual, there’s a traps for the unwary. Here’s a smarter and more consistent way to figure out % change. First we’ll go over some basics which you’re welcome to skip … The formula for calculating a percentage change is
Ignore the clickbait headlines and social media experts, Microsoft Word still has a Thesaurus feature. A slightly related feature has gone but Synonyms is still alive and kicking. Here’s Word’s Thesaurus or “Synonyms” still in Word 365 using Microsoft’s example word. And here’s Synonyms in Word 2024, using a more
Microsoft sent a promo email headed “Your Microsoft 365 subscription just got better”, be aware of the details that Microsoft either missed. ‘forgot’ or buried in the fine print. That email explains about Copilot arriving in Microsoft 365 but little on the severe limitations and nothing on the price rise.
Microsoft is slowly adding an option to disable Copilot AI from their Microsoft 365 apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Here’s what you’re supposed to see on your computer, but won’t necessarily. An option to disable Copilot is being rolled out to Microsoft 365 for Windows and Mac. First in Word
AI technology without limits is available in Microsoft Office with Copilot Pro. AI features are integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for personal customers. Here’s how to get Copilot Pro and the secrets to getting it working. Copilot is Microsoft’s name for their AI based cloud services. They have
Microsoft has fixed an embarrassing bug that caused Microsoft 365 applications and Outlook (classic) to crash on Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 systems. The problem stemmed from a recent Office update that integrated the React Native framework to support certain Microsoft 365 apps’ features. The impact was limited
See how the price of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family has risen in USA, Canada, UK, Europe and many other countries. The new prices for Microsoft 365 consumer plans include Copilot with many limits and a high price. In some countries, it’s the first price rise in many years, despite
There is a way to stop Outlook (new) from being forced onto Windows 10 computers, but you have to act now before Microsoft does. There’s a registry entry that will block the February 2025 security update from forcing Outlook (new) onto your Windows 10 computer. See New Outlook coming to
Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 will end this year. Find out when and how to upgrade to newer Office software or other cheaper options. First and most important, follow the advice of Douglas Adams (much missed) and Don’t Panic. People trying to sell you stuff will use plenty
Here’s two ways to make a running total column in Excel. The way you were probably taught and a much better and more flexible choice. Running or Accumulative Totals are a very common thing in spreadsheets. Here’s a really simple example in columns C and E. Here’s two ways to
All your choices for deleting or hiding comments in Word documents. An essential step before sending a document out. Comments in a Word document are really great for making side-notes or even discussions between people working on a shared document. It’s also great for adding your own notes to a
How to prevent Microsoft from pushing a change from classic Outlook for Windows to their new and incomplete Outlook (new). Microsoft is pushing customers to use Outlook (new) even though the software doesn’t have basic features like proper offline support or interactions between mailboxes. New Outlook also has a serious
Microsoft will soon be pushing the new Outlook for Windows to all Windows 10 users whether they like it or not. They are doing it in a peculiar and self-serving way. Outlook (new) for Windows is the totally revamped replacement for Outlook (classic) sold with MS Office and the Windows
Microsoft 365 Family and Personal plans are getting Copilot AI integration into their Office apps but it comes with a big price increase and many limits to what people get for the extra cost. Customers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand have seen massive prices rises in
If you’ve ever been baffled by all the different things Microsoft calls Outlook, you’re not alone. Microsoft uses the “Outlook” name for multiple apps, web services, mobile clients and desktop programs. From Outlook (classic) for Windows to Outlook.com and the Outlook mobile app, making it hard to know which version
We’ve totally renovated our ebook store to make the whole process a lot easier and faster for our customers around the world. Go to https://store.office-watch.com/ to see the new look and technology. Any purchases in 2025 will use the new system. Better and faster downloads Go direct to ebook download
Microsoft Word’s English dictionaries can be confusing because they don’t always mark incorrect spelling differences between US and UK English (like color/colour). We did some tests with surprising results. English spellings can get screwy as you move between countries and there’s a lot more overlap than many people realize or
