Technology

• Windows 11 24H2’s cumulative update for November introduces more bugs
• There are some very odd instances of repeated installation failures
• Another bug is reportedly causing crashes while gaming

Windows 11 24H2 has run into more problems with bugs – some of them quite weird affairs – courtesy of the latest update released for this most up-to-date version of the operating system.

Windows Latest points out some of the fresh issues uncovered with the cumulative update for November, which was released last week.

One of the stumbling blocks for some Windows 11 24H2 users is that the new update, patch KB5046617, simply won’t install – failing with one of those unhelpful error codes (0x800f0991 and 0x800f0922 are flagged up as being a couple of the more common errors appearing). Sometimes this happens when the installation process comes close to the halfway point.

A new spin on this is that some Windows 11 users are reporting that the November patch seems to install okay, but when checking in the Windows Update history afterward, there’s a message saying it actually failed. In another case, a Redditor reports that this update has been installed a few times, despite seeming to complete successfully each time.

There are quite widespread reports of various installation woes at the usual places online, such as Microsoft’s Answers.com help forum and Reddit.

There are a bunch of other problems highlighted by Windows Latest, including the update promising to fix that nasty issue where Alt-Tabbing led to a big pause – and a black screen – when switching between apps. Apparently, this is fixed for some users, but not others.

PC gamers are also running into trouble with glitches causing weird colors in HDR (with them appearing to be overly bright in some cases), and some PCs are crashing randomly when playing games (and at other times, too, but more commonly when gaming, we’re told). Nasty.

Other miscellaneous problems include Taskbar icons vanishing, USB devices connected to hubs no longer working after KB5046617 has been installed, and Lenovo laptops having their keyboards and touchpads malfunction – which the tech site tells us is fixed by disabling Fast Startup.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Grustock) Analysis: Stormy waters

The stormy seas Windows 11 24H2 finds itself trying to navigate don’t appear to be getting any calmer – we’ve seen plenty of bugs with the latest version of Microsoft’s OS, and a heap more on the pile thanks to this most recent patch isn’t helping.

Of course, installation failures are nothing new – these pop up with depressing regularity, in fact. However, the case in which the November update seems to install just fine, but then is reported as failed in Windows Update, is a new wrinkle. What we don’t know is if the error is the message informing the user about the failure, or whether the bug is the update seemingly installing okay, when in actual fact it hasn’t. It's all very odd, and the Redditor who is seeing the update install repeatedly, with no message about failure, caps off the weirdness here.

Coming back to the issue of Alt-Tab misfiring and being seriously sluggish, there are suggestions of tricks to try for those finding that the November update doesn’t fix this problem. Firstly, try turning off Game Mode, and if that doesn’t help, update your graphics driver to the latest version for Nvidia GPUs (it might not hurt for AMD or Intel graphics cards, either).

Otherwise, we’ll have to wait for the next update for Windows 11 24H2 to come through and hopefully stamp out this bug for good – and the fresh ones that have popped up in KB5046617. As we’ve said before: ever get the feeling Microsoft is playing whack-a-mole here?

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• Baylan Skoll's Lightsaber ushers in a few firsts
• It's the first Black Series Force FX Lightsaber with a red, orange color
• Hasbro's latest creation is super high-tech for an immersive experience

Star Wars Ahsoka captivated us all on Disney Plus, and as we await a second season, the second drop in ‘Gift the Galaxy’ from Hasbro will let you own an iconic piece from the show.

Baylan Skoll, a figure of power and intrigue, not quite a Sith but also not-not-friends-with-Jedi, has left an indelible mark on the Ahsoka story with his iconic red and orange lightsaber. This unique color, a nod to his complex intentions, sets his lightsaber apart from the traditional Sith red, sparking curiosity and excitement among fans.

You can now own Skoll’s iconic lightsaber with Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series Force FX Elite Baylan Skoll Lightstaber. It’s priced at $249.99 / £269.99 (we're working to confirm Australia pricing) with a shipping time frame of ‘Spring 2025’ (likely March, April, or May of next year) and goes up for pre-sale tomorrow at 1 PM ET at Hasbro Pulse and Amazon.

(Image credit: Hasbro)

It ushers in a big first for Habsro’s Black Series Force FX Lightsabers and is the largest hilt in the lineup. It won’t just be screen-accurate regarding all the details but also in size. Unlike Sith sabers from the past, including Darth Vader’s, this isn’t a true, bold red, but rather, Skoll’s saber is a red-orange and the first time this color has been offered in Hasbro’s ultimate lineup.

Baylan Skoll's Lightsaber, a testament to his formidable skills in the show, is a powerhouse of advanced features. With an onboard speaker delivering custom sound effects and multiple arrays of advanced LEDs, it promises to be the most realistic Star Wars lightsaber yet. The progressive ignition and full battle sequence mode for role-playing elements, battle clash, blaster effects, and a wall-cutting effect ensure an immersive experience.

Suffice it to say, much like his wielding skills in the show, this is a pretty stacked lightsaber with an excellent-looking hilt. As with other Force FX Lightsabers, you’ll get a stand in the box to proudly display the hilt, but the blade can be easily attached when needed.

(Image credit: Hasbro)

It’s great to see Hasbro usher in Baylan Skoll’s Lightsaber. As we all await fresh Star Wars films and TV shows to binge – Skeleton Crew is next – and Ahsoka’s second season, this will be a great way to pass the time.

With ‘Gift the Galaxy’ ongoing, you can expect more products to drop showcasing the entire Star Wars universe, and if you’re subscribed to Disney Plus, you can enter to win a Star Wars prize pack or a trip to Star Wars Celebration in Japan here.

Hasbro will begin preorders of Star Wars: The Black Series Force FX Elite Baylan Skoll Lightstaber on November 20, 2024, at 1 PM ET for $249.99 / £269.99 (we're working to confirm Australia pricing) at its Hasbro Pulse online store and on Amazon.

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• Leaks suggest Sony will cut the price of more PS5 accessories this Black Friday
• The DualSense and DualSense Edge Controllers will be discounted
• Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore audio accessories will also see a price cut

Sony's Black Friday deals have leaked ahead of the annual event, and it looks like it will be discounting even more PS5 accessories.

As reported by known and reliable leaker 'billbil-kun' of the French blog Dealabs, this Black Friday Sony will seeingly offer price cuts on its DualSense Wireless Controller and DualSense Edge Controller.

Starting November 22 in France and Europe, DualSense Wireless Controllers, in basic colors, will be discounted by €20 / £16. This means we can expect the price to come down from €74.99 / £62.71 to around €54.99 / £42.71.

It's unclear at this time if this offer will also apply to the Sterling Silver and Cobalt Blue DualSense controllers, the leaker said.

Meanwhile, the DualSsense Edge Wireless Controller, which normally costs €239.99 / £200, will also see a €20 / £16 discount. The Black Friday offer will apparently bring the device down to €219.99 / £184.

In addition, the Pulse Elite wireless headphones and the Pulse Explore Earbuds for the PS5 are also expected to see discounts.

In a separate blog, billbil-kun claimed that Sony will introduce a promotion on these select audio accessories for the first time since launching them in December 2023 and February 2024.

For a limited time, starting November 22, the Pulse Elite will receive a -12% discount while the Pulse Explore buds will get -36% discount.

"This promotion will be valid in France at all authorized merchants, and will probably be extended to Europe and the rest of the world regions," the leaker explained.

During the sale, the Pulse Elite will be priced at €129.99 / £108.77 / $137.55 from €149.99 / £ 125.50 / $158.70, and the Pulse Explore will cost "between 139.99 euros and 149.99 euros instead of 219.99 euros."

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• Sony unveils the A1 II, the Alpha A1 successor, also with 50MP stacked sensor
• It's a minor update, priced at $6,500 / £6,300 body only, Australia pricing TBC
• It goes on sale in late November

Sony has announced its most versatile mirrorless camera yet, the A1 II. It succeeds the Alpha 1, which was a truly game-changing mirrorless camera when it was launched in January 2021, and features the same stacked 50MP full-frame sensor, 30fps burst shooting, and 8K video.

With the same sensor and high-speed performance, the A1 II feels like only a minor update of the A1. However, it delivers design-based improvements that make it feel better in the hand, plus enhanced performance in a few areas, courtesy of tech that's mostly borrowed from Sony's fastest camera for sports and wildlife, the A9 III.

The A1 II's design is nigh on the same as the A9 III's, which is fine with us because we rate that camera as the best-handling Sony Alpha ever.

We've already had some hands-on time with the camera ahead of the launch, and in our A1 II hands-on review we appreciate its chunkier handgrip, especially when pairing the camera with Sony's latest professional lens, launched on the same day, the mighty FE 28-70mm F2 GM (see below).

We've already had some hands-on time with the Sony A1 II ahead of its launch, and our hands-on review is linked above (Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

It's a double whammy of exciting new Sony products for pro photographers and filmmakers. However, the A1 II is only a modest upgrade of the A1, which is now almost four years old, and was a camera whose superb detail and speed set the bar for rivals to follow, with those rivals having since caught up, launching the likes of the Canon EOS R1 and the Nikon Z9.

To its credit, Sony has launched the A1 II at a lower price than 2021's Alpha A1 – it costs $6,500 / £6,300 (Australia pricing TBC, around $12,000) for the body only, and will go on sale in late November. However, there are now cheaper alternatives, such as the Sony A7R V, Canon EOS R5 Mark II and Nikon Z8, which could turn heads away from the A1 II.

While it hasn't pushed the boundaries of camera technology, or explored new ground like it did with the A9 III and its global shutter, Sony has delivered a polished successor in the A1 II. So does this mean Sony Alpha cameras have hit a tech ceiling?

An AI boost to AF

There are pros for whom the A1 II's improvements will be enough to justify an upgrade. It's better in the hand, with a bigger and more comfortable handgrip and a larger multi-angle touchscreen with greater color depth, à la the A9 III.

It also has Sony's AI processing chip, as debuted in the A7R V, which should improve subject-detection autofocus performance, plus a new Auto subject-detection AF mode which intelligently picks out the subject for you, rather than you having to manually select subject type ahead of time. This is a feature I've been calling on all brands to deliver, so thank you Sony, although I'll need to do more in-depth tests to see if there are any compromises when using Auto.

The new Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM lens was announced alongside the A1 II, and they're a formidable pairing. The lens costs $2,900 / £3,050 (Australia pricing TBC). (Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

There's also pre-capture for up to one second ahead of fully pressing the shutter when shooting high-speed sequences, in case your reactions aren't quick enough – another feature lifted from the A9 III. Sony's Bionz XR processor delivers a similar stamina to the A1: 30fps bursts can last for up to 153 raw images – impressive stuff.

Sony says the A1 II's in-body image stabilization is rated up to 8.5EV, whereas it maxes out at 5.5EV on the Alpha A1. All in all, the A1 II is one of the best professional cameras, polishing the rougher edges of the A1. However, there's virtually nothing here that we haven't already seen before from Sony, which is unusual for the great camera innovator given the improvements it's delivered over the last 15 years. It's also the only full-frame Alpha that Sony is launching in 2024, making this an unusually quiet year for the camera giant.

Is Sony running out of ideas? Perhaps, though I believe there's more to come. Sony has on this occasion focused on what pros probably needed the most – better handling – instead of the next headline-grabbing feature. It doesn't exactly make for dramatic headlines, but this camera could win the respect of pro Sony users.

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• Oracle Red Bull Racing announces Neat as official video conferencing partner
• Partnership starts from 2025 Formula 1 season
• Neat will provide video conferencing kit to the team

One of Formula 1's most dominant teams in recent years has announced a new tech partnership showing the importance of video conferencing in the sport.

Reigning Formula 1 world team and driver's champions (at the time of going to press) Oracle Red Bull Racing, has announced it will be teaming up with Neat for the start of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship.

The three-year deal will see Neat devices used throughout Oracle Red Bull Racing's entire organization, including its headquarters just outside Milton Keynes, UK, as well as branding on the team's car and uniforms.

Neat partnership for Oracle Red Bull Racing

The partnership sees Neat named as the team’s exclusive Video Conferencing Hardware Partner and an Innovation Partner, possibly replacing an existing relationship Oracle Red Bull Racing had with Zoom.

“With our shared commitment to innovation and excellence, we are excited to welcome Neat to the Oracle Red Bull Racing Team and look forward to working together to support simple and immersive collaboration experiences for our organization," said Christian Horner, Team Principal and CEO, Oracle Red Bull Racing.

"Close teamwork, passion, and creativity are key to the Team’s success on the track, and Neat’s video technology allows us to collaborate at our best."

The 2025 Formula 1 season will feature 24 races across the globe, with the team travelling to new venues every few weeks, meaning video conferencing and online collaboration tools have never been more important, especially in a sport where gaining even the slightest advantage on your competitors can mean the difference between winning and second place.

Neat offers a range of video conferencing display and camera hardware, alongside its Pulse full-service offering, which gives companies full oversight and control of device deployment across their organization.

“Oracle Red Bull Racing is known around the world as a team that has achieved the highest levels of success in Formula 1 racing, and we are pleased to join them as a partner," said Janine Pelosi, CEO of Neat.

"Neat’s passion for delivering simple yet powerful collaboration experiences aligns perfectly with the Oracle Red Bull Racing team’s dedication to bringing a complex organization together to achieve success. This partnership brings the Neat brand to a large global audience while staying true to our core ethos of bringing people together with our elegant and powerful video devices."

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• Microsoft has released the November update for its Secure Future Initiative
• New security oriented solutions have been introduced across environments
• Microsoft also announces a new Windows Resiliency Initiative

Microsoft has released the second update to its Secure Future Initiative - a program introduced to address critical security challenges and vulnerabilities experienced by the company which led to state-sponsored threat actors compromising US government data.

Microsoft has built upon progress made in its September 2024 update, where it introduced a number of security-oriented changes, including tying security to performance evaluations and introducing the Security Skilling Academy.

The company says further progress has now been made across Microsoft’s six engineering pillars to ensure “security above all else” to help protect users, businesses and contractors.

More progress across the pillars

(Image credit: Microsoft)

In the September 2024 update, Microsoft advanced the security of its first pillar, ‘protect identities and secrets’, by boosting the protection of access token signing keys on Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Account, and Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services. Microsoft also introduced phishing resistant credentials across the productivity environment.

A number of major changes have also now been revealed, with the Microsoft Azure Portal, Microsoft Entra admin center, Intune admin center, and Microsoft 365 admin center all getting multifactor authentication enabled by default for new tenants.

MFA is also being enforced across Microsoft’s productivity environments to reduce the risk of phishing and credential theft.

For pillar two, ‘protect tenants and isolate production systems’, the September update saw Microsoft introduce lifetime management and secure defaults for Microsoft Entra ID accounts, alongside removing management from legacy platforms such as the Azure Service Management API. These updates saw 5.75 million tenants eliminated and 440,000 resources removed.

The company says its progress since September has seen Microsoft introduce the Entra Conditional Access template which requires users to meet a certain level of device compliance. Moreover, Microsoft says it has rolled out almost 100,000 ‘locked-down’ devices, with 28,000 high-risk users moved to secure virtual machines.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

September’s update to the third pillar, ‘protect networks’, saw Microsoft configure over 99% of its network devices to a baseline standard, with physical devices continually monitored for vulnerabilities and security hygiene. All Microsoft services had service tags added to help identity owners of traffic in the Microsoft network, and centrally configured network policies were introduced.

Since then, Microsoft has made Azure Virtual Network Encryption available, with Domain Name System Security Extensions support in public preview. Microsoft also refined its ‘over 99%’ number to 99.3%, and highlighted the implementation of mandatory access control lists to isolate physical assets and prevent lateral movement in the event of network compromise.

September saw Microsoft increase security for pillar four, ‘protect engineering systems’, by tracking software assets in production environments, applied new policies to harden code repositories, as well as a number of changes to pipelines, testing environments and derived credentials.

Microsoft has now introduced GitHub Advanced Security to allow customers to scan Azure DevOps Git repositories for secret exposures, as well as blocking new secrets from being exposed at push. More work is to be done here, however, as Microsoft is still working towards removing secrets from code, but the report highlights the introduction of authentication protocols to eliminate exposed credentials and secrets.

For ‘monitor and detect threats’, Microsoft's fifth pillar, September saw Redmond introduce service-level security audit logging in standard libraries, as well as a centrally enforced security log retention period. Microsoft also said it was working to add new methods for detecting known threat actors’ tactics, techniques and procedures to red teaming tools, and expanded the availability of Microsoft 365 audit logs.

November’s update shows that Microsoft has also introduced consistent audit logging across all services with a retention period of two years, with logging also expanded to Microsoft’s cloud services.

Finally, September's update to the sixth pillar, ‘accelerate response and remediation’ saw the reduction of Microsoft’s time to mitigate critical cloud vulnerabilities, the introduction of cloud common vulnerability and exposures (CVE) publishing, and the launch of the Customer Security Management Office that provides updates and advisories on unfolding security incidents.

Now, Microsoft has released figures showing that they successfully addressed 90% of high severity cloud vulnerabilities within their reduced time to mitigate and published 800 cloud CVEs. Microsoft is now looking to issue security reports on nation-state actors direct to customers through Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365.

Microsoft has also announced it is introducing the Windows Resiliency Initiative which is aimed at increasing the security of business devices, addressing the lessons learnt from the Crowdstrike outage, and increasing the usage of Windows 11.

The new initiative is aimed at reducing the number of admin privileges applications require in order to run, introducing better security controls for running apps and drivers, and boosting phishing resistance.

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• Microsoft unveils a host of AI-powered agents at Ignite 2024
• AI agents promise to solve even specialized business problems
• Microsoft Teams and Share Point among tools getting the upgrades

Microsoft has revealed a host of new AI-powered agents it says will help users and businesses alike address some of their most pressing issues.

At Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company unveiled several new specialized agents working across the Microsoft 365 suite alongside office software stalwarts such as SharePoint and Teams, as part of an initial look at how transformative the technology can be.

The company says the launch will see the agents, "take on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization to handle simple, mundane tasks as well as complex, multi-step business processes."

AI agents for Microsoft 365

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Among the new agents is Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat), which can quickly provide answers for employees concerning specific HR and IT policies within their business. Users can get information from BizChat on anything from payroll data, holiday allowance, requesting a new laptop from IT, and much more, all in a single location.

Microsoft also revealed users will be able to create and customize agents for its SharePoint collaboration platform in order to help support everyday tasks and processes. For example, an agent can be designed to learn about a specific project or business area, with users able to ask the agent questions about specialized areas, and the answers shared in real time across emails, meetings and chats.

As for Microsoft Teams, there is a new Facilitator agent which the company says can provide more effective collaboration and communication by taking notes in real-time, before sharing a summary of the most important information as the chat continues. There is also a new Interpreter agent which can translate up to nine languages at one time in a Teams meeting, allowing participants to speak and listen in the language of their choice.

Finally, a new Project Manager agent is able to automate project management in the Microsoft Planner platform, either creating an entirely new plan, or offering one of a series of pre-configured templates. The agent can then handle assigning tasks, tracking progress, and sending reminders and notifications to get status updates.

Build it smarter

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Elsewhere, Microsoft has also announced several updates for Copilot Studio, the platform used for building new agents.

Going forward, users will now be able to build smarter autonomous agents, able to take action on their behalf, for example responding to an email, or recording an uploaded file, without having to prompt the agent each time.

There will also be a library of agent templates for common business scenarios, helping users create an agent for the first time, alongside the existing range of customizations on offer.

Users will also be able to upload images to Copilot Studio, with agents able to analyze the uploads and ask questions about the images in order to gain extra context and insight. Any unanswered questions can be solved by matching specific instructions to fix a knowledge gap at the root of each unanswered question, with the ability to add new sources over time and build up the agent's intelligence.

Developers will also be able to build "full-stack, multichannel, trusted agents" using a new Agent SDK that brings together tools from Azure AI, Semantic Kernel and Copilot Studio, and can be deployed across multiple channels, such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the web and other third-party messaging platforms.

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• Up to 51 spoken and 31 translation languages now on offer
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Connecting with colleagues, customers, and friends across the world is set to get much simpler thanks to a significant update to Microsoft Teams.

The video conferencing service has revealed it will be introducing transcription for multi-lingual meetings, supporting more languages than ever, even when it comes to meeting recaps.

Revealed as part of Microsoft's Ignite 2024 event news announcements, the news will also see an improved version of document summaries, generated and supplied by Copilot, to help users stay on track with their chats.

Microsoft Teams translation

Microsoft says the upgraded transcription and translation software features will help break down language barriers and facilitate improved collaboration among global teams.

Users will be able to select one of 51 spoken languages and one of the 31 translation languages on offer, with the meeting transcript able to record and supply the whole conversation, no matter what language is spoken.

The feature, which is coming in 2025 for Microsoft Teams desktop, web, and mobile apps, will also see live translations for captions and live transcripts supported.

Users will also receive an automatically-generated meeting recap supplied in whatever language they chose, after the meeting has ended, and can even alter the translation language via the Recap tab.

Elsewhere, the company revealed that Teams users will also be able to have a Copilot-generated summary of a file shared with them in a chat without needing to switch between apps.

Often, when a file is shared in a Teams chat, users aren't able to read through and digest in quickly, but the new feature, coming in preview in early 2025 will be able to quickly summarize the content so the user can understand the main points without opening the file.

Only users with access to the file will get a summary, so there's no risk of security leaks, with summaries carrying the same sensitivity label as the original file for extra safety.

Finally, the company is looking to make Microsoft Teams a place for employees of all levels to communicate via an upgrade to its Storyline feature, which will now be integrated within the platform.

Storyline will give all employees the opportunity to follow updates and notifications from leadership, discover content, contribute ideas and perspectives and express themselves to senior management, all from within Microsoft Teams.

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• Windows 365 Link Cloud PC unveiled at Microsoft Ignite 2024
• Offers dual monitor connection, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more
• Windows 365 Link device will be available in April 2025 for $349

Microsoft has unveiled a new Cloud PC device aimed at getting business workloads onto Windows 365 quicker than ever.

The new Windows 365 Link is a business-focused mini PC able to give users their classic Windows desktop experience on a cloud PC, with everything hosted in Azure, in an easy to deploy and manage low-footprint device.

Announced as part of the company's Microsoft Ignite 2024 event, the Windows 365 Link device will be available in April 2025 for $349, and is in preview now for selected customers.

Windows 365 Link

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The compact and lightweight device features a fanless design that should mean it can easily fit in to most workspaces, as well as being able to be unplugged and taken somewhere else when needed.

Microsoft says the Windows 365 Link takes seconds to boot up and will "instantly" wake up from sleep mode. Monitoring and management will come via Microsoft Intune, meaning the device can easily sync up with other Windows PCs, and configuration can reportedly be completed within minutes of turning on, with automatic updates coming as a standard - with the ability to factory reset remotely in minutes for easy reuse.

When it comes to connectivity, the device will offer dual 4K monitor support, four USB ports, an audio port, an Ethernet Port, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, with Microsoft promising "seamless" connectivity to wired and wireless accessories alike.

Microsoft says the new Windows 365 Link will be "secure by design", as it has no local data or local apps, so your data will stay within Microsoft's cloud at all times.

Security baseline policies will be enabled by default and security features cannot be turned off, with passwordless authentication for logins via Microsoft Entra ID and the Microsoft Authenticator app or USB security keys.

Given its promised flexibility, Microsoft has also made the Windows 365 Link stand out in terms of sustainability. The device is made with 90% post-consumer recycled aluminum alloy in its top shield and 100% pre-consumer recycled aluminum alloy in its bottom plate. Its motherboard contains 100% recycled copper and 96% recycled tin solder, and the device as a whole reportedly offers lower energy consumption than most desktops.

If your business wants to try out the new device now, a preview program is now open for applications to organizations with desk-based workers using Windows 365 in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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• More Copilot-powered features coming to top Microsoft 365 tools
• Microsoft Excel gets new template-building tool
• PowerPoint can now build richer slides, and Outlook gets smarter calendar integration

Microsoft has unveiled a host of Copilot-powered upgrades to some of the most popular office software tools in use today.

The likes of Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint are all set for another AI-enabled update after the company revealed the news at its Microsoft Ignite 2024 event.

Microsoft says the changes will lead to greater efficiency and productivity across the board, freeing up more time and space for workers at all levels to focus on the tasks that really matter.

Copilot upgrades

Included in the new updates is a new Microsoft Excel tool which aims to make creating specialized spreadsheets more straightforward for workers at all levels.

The new "start experience" will let users tell Copilot exactly what kind of spreadsheet they are creating, whether it be a project budget, inventory tracker, sales report, or anything else, and the tool will suggest a template file.

This template can then be refined further with headers, formulae and even visuals, giving the user a kickstart on creating the perfect spreadsheet.

This feature will be generally available by the end of the year with Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel.

Elsewhere, Copilot will soon be able to better integrate with a user's Outlook platform in order to analyze their calendar to pick and schedule the best time for events such as 1:1 meetings, or even just some focus time.

The tool, available by the end of November 2024, can even help draft an agenda for a meeting by prompting it with details about the goals of the event, for example, “The goal of this meeting is to review the next project and introduce a team member”, and create an agenda to help the meeting stay on track.

Microsoft Places will also get closer integration with both Outlook and Teams, bringing AI-powered location tools that will help workers get the most out of being in the office.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

There are also a range of new PowerPoint tools enabled by Copilot that Microsoft says will help users create better presentations in a matter of minutes.

This includes Copilot's Narrative Builder feature, which will use information from a pre-established template and referenced file from the user to create a full-scale first draft presentation, including branded design, speaker notes and built-in transitions and animations.

Copilot can also now handle translation of PowerPoint presentations, with 40 languages initially available, all whilst keeping the slide design as intended, helping get your message across to colleagues around the world.

Narrative Builder is coming to Copilot in PowerPoint in January 2025, with translation coming to Copilot in PowerPoint on the web beginning in December and for desktop and Mac in January 2025.

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