Windows 11 was finally announced today.  

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made sure to tell everyone at the event that this was the first version of a new era for Windows.
While a very early build of Windows 11 had leaked, showcasing a new refreshed look and a new name, we finally got to see the new user interface and new features officially.
While Microsoft had in the past said that Windows 10 was going to be the only version of its operating system for years to come, it's now been around for six years, and this new update brings significant features to help justify the jump to a new number.

So here are the important details

Windows 11 release date:

Microsoft says Windows 11 will be out "this holiday season" – so likely sometime between late November and Christmas. In the meantime, you can download a tool to see if your desktop PC or laptop will be able to run Windows 11.

How much is Windows 11?

Windows 11 will be a free update for existing Windows users – you'll need to be online to download, install and activate Home versions, and you'll need to have a Microsoft account when installing it on or upgrading your PC or tablet.

Windows 11 features. 

There are refined features across the board in Windows 11, with updates now 40% smaller, alongside them touting Windows 11 to be 'the most secure release yet'.

The taskbar is optimized for touch as well as mouse peripherals, now renamed the Dock.
New multitasking features are also here, with multiple windows able to be snapped across the screen, not just side by side, called Snap Layouts. By highlighting a window, you can have multiple windows in columns, sections and more, able to look at your content equally with no compromise.
Another feature is Snap Groups, where you can go back to previously snapped windows from the dock, so you can go to your email app, Edge browser windows or anything else without looking for this workflow again.
There's improved multi-monitor support, so when you reconnect an external monitor, Windows 11 remembers the previous positions with the windows that were on this monitor.

Teams is also integrated to the dock, so you can easily join in with meetings and family. This looks like the first inkling of Skype disappearing, especially with the Skype sounds being heard in the demo when a call was incoming.
The Microsoft Store is finally seeing a redesign, with much better curated content, and a better way of managing your purchased shows, such as mirroring them to your television. 

A new look for 11. 

At the event, the start menu has been moved to the center, which is 'cloud powered', so it dynamically changes depending on the time of day and your content that you manage each day.
Light Mode and Dark Mode are official, with rounded corners and a unified design across the operating system.
There are some windows that look Aero-esque from Windows Vista, showing you byte sized information.

Gaming on Windows 11

Gaming is now a big push for Windows 11, not just as an Xbox app. Lighting is a big thing, with HDR coming to devices on the new Windows.
Direct Storage is also here, with the main assets able to be downloaded and installed, so you can play your games even faster than before.
Xbox Game Pass is built right into the Xbox app at last, making it much easier for you to access and download even more games, from Doom Eternal to soon Halo Infinite.


Touch improvements

Tablet mode has been one of Windows' weaker points ever since Windows 8. 
These tablet features could be a showcase for Windows 11, especially with future Surface products in the pipeline from Microsoft. To have a new, numbered operating system for its upcoming tablets could be a big selling point for new users in due time.

At the event, Microsoft touted bigger touch targets and easier ways to move windows around, and better rotate optimizations, such as window management.  Gestures on the trackpad of the Surface models are also coming to the touch-screen, bringing in some familiarity here.  Haptics is also coming to Windows 11 when using a pen, making it much easier for you to tell how a line or a drawing is.  The touch keyboard has also been redesigned, with a smaller keyboard just for your thumb also here, with emoji's ready to be used.  Dictation is also much improved, alongside voice commands, with 'delete that' and more in Windows 11. 

Are you looking forward to windows 11 yet?  We will be testing the beta in the office and will have a demo unit for you to look at and play with soon in the future,  In the meantime let us know if you have any questions or concerns for this new OS coming soon.

Microsoft said that Outlook is suffering “email visibility issues”, with widespread reports of text disappearing after being entered into a new message, and of existing messages having no body text at all.
IT administrators said they were rolling back a recent Office update that appears to be the root cause; both desktop and 365 users are reporting issues.
“We’re investigating an issue with email message visibility in Outlook. Outlook on the web appears to be unaffected,” Microsoft said in a brief status advisory.
Users worldwide reported a variety of text input and visibility problems. There were confirmed reports of the issues impacting Australian and New Zealand users.
“If you hit ‘new message’ and type in the body no text appears. But If you send it the text shows up for the recipient,” one user wrote.
“We have several users that cannot see the text in emails in their mailboxes,” Seth Kamins tweeted.
“If you reply you still cannot see this unless you backspace.  Very odd. 
“OWA unaffected as we have Exchange on Prem.  Same thing happens when turning off Cache.”
One user screenshotted the experience, with the body of a new email disappearing every time a new line was entered.
Administrators reported that disabling autoupdate and rolling back to a previous version worked; Outlook Web Access (OWA) and access via phone-based client also appeared to be unaffected.
"Users with access to alternate protocols like Outlook on the web or Outlook mobile can use those as a potential workaround in the interim," Microsoft later officially advised.
However, not even some of these workarounds were foolproof.
There was no ETA on an official fix or explanation at the time of publication.

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Nvidia rolled out its new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000-series graphics cards, with the top-of-the-line RTX 3090 that the company claims can handle 8K/60 frames-per-second gameplay -- using upscaling in what's called DLSS 8K mode. We also heard about the RTX 3080 and 3070, the usual better-faster replacements for their predecessors, the RTX 2080 and 2070. Essentially, the 30-generation of the GeForce cards is intended to provide the performance with ray tracing and DLSS that we expected when Nvidia first announced the RTX line. 
GeForce RTX 3090 cards are slated to ship on Sept. 24 starting at $1,499, while the RTX 3080 is coming on Sept. 17 starting at $699 and the RTX 3070 in October beginning at $499. 

The RTX 3090 is really more of a Titan RTX replacement, with HDMI 2.1 and AV1 decoding support, plus 24GB GDDR6X (G6X) and "a giant Ampere" processor. It's a three-slot card and almost all of it's cooling and heat dissipation. Games launching with DLSS 8K support include Control, Death Stranding, Minecraft with RTX Beta for Windows 10, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

The RTX 3080 and 3070 seem to deliver about a 30% improvement over the Super versions they replace, which is pretty good in gen-over-gen terms; Nvidia claims the 3070 is faster than the 2080 Ti at the price of the 2070 Super in 4K. 
Are you ready to game yet?  We will have ours ready to go as soon as they are released and will be putting them in our new gaming builds.

Lenovo has warned ThinkPad owners that the August 11, 2020 Patch Tuesday update for Windows 10 version 2004 is causing Blue Screen of Deaths (BSODs) and breaks Windows Hello biometric login. 
The issues affect Lenovo ThinkPads made in 2019 and 2020 and, according to a support article from Lenovo, stem from the Enhanced Windows Biometric Security setting in BIOS setup. The bug appears in the cumulative update KB566782 for Windows 10 version 2004, which included over 100 security patches as well as new security features for the OS.
​After installing KB566782, users may notice BSODs when booting, when starting the Lenovo Vantage for updating drivers, or when running a Windows Defender scan, according to Lenovo. 
Other symptoms include being unable to login using face authentication with Windows Hello, as well as errors in Device Manager that are related to both the Intel Management Engine CPU subsystem and the device's infrared camera.   
Fortunately, Lenovo notes there is a solution: "Disable the Enhanced Windows Biometric Security setting in BIOS Setup -> Security -> Virtualization menu."

Microsoft Outlook is immediately crashing worldwide when users start the application, with 0xc0000005 errors displayed in the Windows Event Viewer.
These crashes started occurring over the last hour, and reports are flooding in from users all over the world.

You can fix this two ways - temporarily for right now :(

A.) Roll back to the June 24, 2020, release and fix the Microsoft Outlook crashes, please follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt by clicking on the Start Menu and typing CMD. When the 'Command Prompt' result appears, click on it.
2. In the command prompt type cd "\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun" and press enter.
3. You will now be in the ClickToRun folder. Type officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12827.20470 and press enter.
4. When the updates are finished installing, you will be shown a screen stating 'Updates were installed.' You can press the Close button on this screen.
5. Microsoft Outlook will now be rolled back to the previous version, and you should be able to start Microsoft Outlook again.
6. You can now close the Command Prompt by clicking on the X button.

B.) If you do not want to roll back to a previous version of Microsoft Office, you can launch Microsoft Outlook in Safe Mode to fix the crashes.  It should be noted that when starting Outlook in Safe Mode, all add-ins will be disabled, including security add-ins.To start Outlook in Safe Mode, please follow these steps:

1. Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then launch Microsoft Outlook. Outlook will proceed to start and then ask if you are sure you wish to start in safe mode.
2. You should now press the Yes button and Outlook will start in Safe Mode with add-ins disabled.
3. Once Outlook starts, you can confirm you are in Safe Mode, as the title of the Outlook window will state "Microsoft Outlook (Safe Mode)"
4. When done using Outlook, you can simply close the program.
5. It should be noted that you need to repeat this procedure every time you want to start Outlook in Safe Mode.
   If these methods do not work, please leave a comment.
   
   Also make sure to pause updates for 7 days so that the problem does not come back and hopefully microsoft will have fixed the issue by then.

03/10 Update: the problems associated with KB4535996 are still increasing. The always diligent BetaNews, reports that some Windows 10 users who have installed the update are discovering that sleep no longer works correctly on their computers and Microsoft's KB4535996 community page is filled complaints including broken search, trouble opening apps and a growing number of users reporting their PCs will not boot after updating. Remarkably, three days on from these troubles beginning, Microsoft still states on its KB4535996 update page that it is "not currently aware of any issues with this update". Ignore this. If you haven't already, get the Windows Update troubleshooter and proactively block KB4535996. Until more is known, this is an update you need to avoid.

03/09 Update: Microsoft has confirmed Windows 10 has run into more trouble. The company has published a support page explaining that a new bug in Windows 10 can prevent users from manually installing drivers on their PCs. Users will receive the error message: "A driver can't load on this device" and it can break installations even after they appear to complete successfully. Microsoft states "If you choose to continue using your device without addressing the driver problem, you might discover that the functionality the driver supports does not work any longer, which could have consequences ranging from negligible to severe." Third party drivers can be essential, particularly for legacy devices, so Microsoft has offered a workaround which (perhaps surprisingly) involves turning off a Windows 10 security setting that guards memory integrity to allow the driver installation to complete:
​

Are you booting up your Windows 10 machine and discovering you can’t log in to your profile? It appears you’re not alone. Reports are increasing across Twitter and Microsoft forums that following the most recent Patch Tuesday update (KB4532693), users are complaining that their profiles and desktop files are missing, and that custom icons and wallpaper have all been reset to their default state.

The generally accepted solution to this problem is browsing to the C:\Users folder with Explorer and checking for a folder named “.000” or “.bak.” Once you’ve tracked it down you can create a new Administrator account, log in to that account, then copy the folders and files back where they belong (Documents, Pictures, Music, Desktop, etc).
Bleeping Computer, however, is also reporting that several readers resolved the issue by rebooting “several times” or just uninstalling the troublesome KB4532693 update. The site also states Microsoft is aware of the issue and is investigating.