Newsletter Archives

• Viva Microsoft!

  Posted on October 21, 2021 at 07:35 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  One day in what seems the distant past, Microsoft Cortana starting sending me email messages. I didn’t ask for them; they just started showing up. For the most part, I found them useless. I think there were some “mental health” messages. My wife thinks I’m crazy; I don’t need some server in Redmond telling me that.

  One day in what I’m sure is the recent past, the new Microsoft Viva took over that responsibility. This time, however, the focus appears to be on actionable items. Cortana/Viva is watching me, picking out what it thinks are to do items, and reminding me about them. I’ve been a happy camper for years because while it was apparent that Google was reading my Gmail, Microsoft wasn’t. Now it clearly is.

  But, okay, reminders. I handle a lot of email in my editorial duties; some assistance might be helpful. So, I’ve been experimenting.

  

  More often than not, clicking one of the action buttons in the email results in the teeny, tiny error message shown at the top.

  Can’t Microsoft code any longer?

  Microsoft, Microsoft 365 Artificial Intelligence, Cortana, Microsoft 365, Viva

• Cortana officially gets thrown under the bus

  Posted on February 28, 2020 at 16:40 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  An amazing Friday blog post from Cortana corporate VP Andrew Shuman:

  Today, Microsoft is announcing an updated Cortana experience in Windows 10 that will deliver more help from your assistant in Microsoft 365. This next step in Cortana’s evolution will bring enhanced, seamless personal productivity assistance as a free update to the latest version of Windows 10 coming this spring…

  We’re excited about how these updates to Cortana will help you stay on top of things, save time and do your best work. As we continue to innovate on Cortana in Microsoft 365, we plan to share further improvements in the coming months.

  Tero Alhonen had an accurate synopsis on Twitter:

  We’re excited about these updates to Cortana:
  * consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available
  * ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows
  * turning off the Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android

  and we plan to share further improvements in the coming months.

  He then turned to the demise of certain MCSE certifications, posted yesterday by Alex Payne, the GM of Global Technical Learning at MS….

  We’re also excited to share that there will not be Windows Server 2019 and SQL Server 2019 certifications and basically everything that has anything to do with on-prem will be wiped out

  (That’s Tero’s take, but it’s a fair representation of what’s happening.)

  Uncategorized Cortana, MCSE

• Cortana’s footprint is shrinking

  Posted on November 18, 2019 at 07:50 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I think there may be two people reading this who will actually care, but Microsoft is pulling Cortana from Android and iOS, as Lawrence Abrams describes on Bleepingcomputer.

  I think MS hasn’t gone far enough. Mehedi Hassan, over at Thurrot.com, got it right:

  pic.twitter.com/VtW0vU8k6z

  — mehedi (@mehedih_) November 16, 2019

  UPDATE: Günter Born has the original article. Not clear if the US will be among the countries that lose Cortana on iOS and Android.

  Windows 10 Cortana

• Where we stand with the Cortana/Search redlining bug

  Posted on September 4, 2019 at 06:05 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  We’re stuck between a rock and a very hard place.

  On the one hand, if you’re running Win10 1903 — you may have been pushed — you really need to get the first August cumulative update installed to guard against DejaBlue (which hasn’t been exploited yet).

  On the other hand, there are so many bugs in the first August cumulative update (VB/VBA/VBScript, Windows Sandbox, PXE, MIT Kerberos) that you really should get the second August cumulative update.

  On the third hand, if you install the second August cumulative update, your machine may start redlining.

  Tell me again how Win10 1903 is ready for prime time?

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security Cortana, Cortana redline, CPU redline, KB 4512941, Win10 1903

• Microsoft STILL hasn’t acknowledged the bugs in last Friday’s Win10 1903 cumulative update

  Posted on September 3, 2019 at 13:54 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Last Friday, Microsoft released KB 4512941, the long-anticipated second August cumulative update for Win10 version 1903.

  Within a few hours, people were complaining on various online forums that installing the update immediately triggered excessive CPU use. I wrote about that on Friday night.

  Since then, explanations and workarounds have appeared all over the place. @EP came up with this list:

  https://news.softpedia.com/news/windows-10-cumulative-update-kb4512941-causing-high-cpu-usage-527226.shtml

  https://www.neowin.net/news/some-windows-10-users-on-1903-are-facing-high-cpu-usage-after-latest-cumulative-updates

  https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-cpu-spikes-1903-update-brings-fixes-but-also-high-usage-issues/

  https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-kb4512941-update-causing-high-cpu-usage-in-cortana/

  one workaround to the problem posted on Softpedia news:
  https://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-fix-high-cpu-usage-caused-by-windows-10-cumulative-update-kb4512941-527235.shtml

  Günter Born has had two — not one, but two — explainers with detailed analyses. Ends up that making certain registry changes can get the CPU utilization back to normal.

  Most damning, Mayank Parnmar at Windows Latest reported on Saturday:

  It’s important to note that Microsoft actually tested KB4512941 with Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Ring for more than a week before shipping the update to the general public.

  According to some posts on Feedback Hub, reports of high CPU usage were submitted multiple times by testers earlier this week, but the reports appear to have been ignored because they weren’t upvoted enough.

  So now it’s Tuesday, four days after the offal hit the fan… and Microsoft hasn’t said one thing about it.

  Even now, the KB article says:

  Known issues in this update

  Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.

  And the Release Information Status page says absolutely nothing.

  UPDATE: As I was writing this, MS posted on Twitter (thx, MJF)

  We are currently investigating an issue where users are reporting high CPU usage linked to SeachUI.EXE after installing the optional update on August 30 (KB4512941). We will provide an update in an upcoming release.

  — Windows Update (@WindowsUpdate) September 3, 2019

  Windows Patches/Security Cortana, Cortana redline, CPU redline, KB 4512941, Win10 1903

• Cortana isn’t exactly going away, but…

  Posted on July 25, 2019 at 10:15 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Good overview of Cortana’s long-anticipated demise by Tom Warren, over at The Verge.

  Microsoft is now refocusing Cortana and stripping back its direct integration in Windows 10 and the Xbox One. Microsoft has a new vision for Cortana, involving conversational interactions for workers who are organizing their days.

  Don’t know about you, but I’m quite happy with the way my working days are organized. Which is to say, hectically.

  I use Alexa and OK Google all the time, and Siri occasionally. I never understood why anyone would want Cortana. Perhaps “she” will find peace in her new home.

  Windows News Cortana

• Gralla: Will Cortana go the way of Windows Phone?

  Posted on November 23, 2018 at 07:20 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  Signs sure point in that direction.

  [Microsoft has] finally shed the arrogance of believing it can win every fight by spending billions of dollars and using Windows as a battering ram.

  I, for one, won’t miss her.

  Great article by Preston Gralla.

  Windows News Cortana

• Say what? Microsoft moves the Cortana org to sit under Office?

  Posted on October 11, 2018 at 12:37 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Wow. How the mighty have fallen.

  Cortana under Office changes all sorts of things.

  Brad Sams on Petri.

  Microsoft News Cortana, Office
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