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Microsoft has added a near‑real‑time enforcement layer to Copilot Studio that lets security teams intercept, evaluate and — when necessary — block the actions autonomous agents plan to take as they run, bringing step‑level policy decisioning into the live execution loop for Power Platform agents. Background Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s low‑code/no‑code environment inside the Power Platform for designing, testing, and deploying AI copilots and autonomous agents that interact with business...

Microsoft Copilot experienced a measurable service disruption on September 8, 2025, with hundreds of user reports and outage-tracking spikes starting around 8:05 PM Eastern Time — community monitoring and real‑time trackers flagged the issue and users were advised to try alternate Copilot entry points while Microsoft investigated. Background Microsoft Copilot is the umbrella name for the AI assistant functionality integrated across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — including the web portal at...

Dave Plummer’s confession that the worst bug he ever shipped was tied to the beloved Windows pack‑in game Pinball is more than a nostalgic anecdote — it’s a compact lesson in resource management, legacy code risk, and the kind of tiny design decisions that can balloon into systemic problems as hardware outpaces assumptions. What began as a straightforward port of a 1990s table wound up consuming an entire CPU core on modern machines because the game’s render loop drew frames as fast as it...

Microsoft’s decision to stop free security updates for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025 has moved from a routine lifecycle notice into a global business, security and environmental story — one that could funnel billions into Microsoft’s coffers through Extended Security Updates (ESU), provoke litigation, and trigger a surge of electronic waste unless organisations and consumers act swiftly. Background / Overview Microsoft’s public lifecycle calendar sets October 14, 2025 as the official...

Xbox’s latest move with LG pulls cloud gaming out of the living room and into the passenger seat, bringing a native Xbox app to internet‑connected cars that run LG’s webOS‑based Automotive Content Platform so passengers can stream Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) titles via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate while the vehicle is parked or charging. Background / Overview The collaboration builds on a clear two‑year trajectory: Microsoft has aggressively pushed Xbox Cloud Gaming onto as many screens as possible...

Most Windows 10 users who meet Windows 11’s hardware rules can upgrade and keep their existing license — the process is usually automated, free, and handled by Microsoft’s activation servers — but there are important caveats: license type (retail vs. OEM), major hardware swaps (especially the motherboard), and a tightening of older upgrade loopholes all affect whether your license follows you smoothly. Background / Overview Microsoft’s upgrade path from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is...

Microsoft is planning to pull the plug on Outlook Lite’s distribution this October, with multiple technology outlets reporting that new installations will be blocked beginning October 6, 2025, and users being nudged to move to the full Outlook mobile experience. Background / Overview Outlook Lite arrived as Microsoft’s deliberate answer to low-end Android devices and bandwidth‑constrained markets. Announced in August 2022, it was built around a single objective: deliver the core Outlook...

Microsoft has moved a critical enforcement point for autonomous workflows from design-time checks and post‑hoc logging into the live execution path: Copilot Studio now supports near‑real‑time runtime security controls that let organizations route an agent’s planned actions to external monitors (Microsoft Defender, third‑party XDR vendors, or custom endpoints) and approve or block those actions while the agent runs, a capability rolling out in public preview this month. Background Copilot...

Microsoft’s Azure cloud briefly showed the limits of virtual resilience when several undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut on 6 September 2025, forcing traffic onto longer detours, producing higher-than-normal latency for cross‑region traffic, and triggering urgent traffic‑engineering work by Microsoft and multiple carriers to preserve reachability. Background The modern internet is a physical network built on submarine fiber‑optic cables that carry the overwhelming majority...

Internet traffic between South Asia, the Gulf and parts of the Middle East slowed dramatically after multiple subsea fibre‑optic cables in the Red Sea were damaged, forcing carriers and cloud providers to reroute traffic, prompting Microsoft Azure to warn customers of higher latency and exposing fresh questions about the fragility of the world’s undersea communications arteries. Background: why one narrow waterway matters for the global internet The modern internet is not a nebulous cloud —...

Hitachi Solutions Europe’s Proof of Concept (PoC) that let Microsoft applications — including Power Platform, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Copilot — operate on live, sensitive case data stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) without copying or moving that data represents a practical leap for secure multi‑cloud interoperability in government. Background Government IT estates are no longer single‑vendor islands. Critical systems and citizen data frequently span Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud...

Windows ships with capable, polished defaults — but for many real workflows the built‑in apps are the bottleneck: limited features, conservative design choices, and occasional performance problems leave gaps that small, focused third‑party tools fill quickly and cheaply. The six alternatives below replace Windows’ Snipping Tool, Clipboard History, default PDF viewer, Windows Search, Photos, and Media Player with free, lightweight apps that are faster, more flexible, and often more respectful...

Windows ships with a tidy set of built‑in utilities that make a PC usable out of the box — but if you’re looking for speed, control, and features that actually match real workflows, the defaults often fall short and quietly slow you down. A recent roundup arguing that Windows’ bundled apps can be replaced with faster, freer tools crystallizes this tension and names six practical swaps that deliver measurable gains in daily productivity. Background / Overview Windows 11’s default apps...

Microsoft’s Copilot Studio has added a near‑real‑time security control that routes an agent’s planned actions through external monitors—allowing organizations to approve or block tool calls and actions while an AI agent runs—and the capability is now available in public preview for Power Platform tenants. Background / Overview Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s low‑code environment inside the Power Platform for building, customizing, and deploying AI copilots and autonomous agents that interact...

Microsoft’s latest update quietly pulls a dramatic change into Excel’s typing box: AI-driven formula completion that suggests, explains, and can even preview formulas the moment you type “=”, folding natural-language Copilot capabilities into one of the oldest—and most error-prone—workflows in spreadsheets. This move blends years of incremental autocomplete improvements with generative AI to speed formula creation, reduce syntax friction, and surface analysis that used to require memorizing...

Microsoft Azure customers experienced measurable slowdowns and higher-than-normal latency after multiple undersea fiber-optic cables in the Red Sea were cut, forcing cloud traffic onto longer, congested detours and exposing brittle physical chokepoints beneath modern cloud resilience. Background The global internet is built largely on submarine fiber-optic cables that carry the vast majority of intercontinental data traffic. These physical links — laid on the seabed and terminating at a...

In a story that moved swiftly from Reddit threads to high-traffic YouTube videos and mainstream tech headlines, recent reports blamed Microsoft's Windows 11 updates (notably KB5063878 and KB5062660) for a rash of SSD failures. The picture that has emerged after vendor investigations is more nuanced: Phison, the SSD controller maker at the center of the controversy, says many of the failing drives involved engineering preview firmware and early BIOS versions used in media testing rather than...

Microsoft’s Copilot Studio has added a near‑real‑time monitoring and control layer for AI agents, letting enterprises intercept, evaluate and — when necessary — block agent actions as they execute, and giving security teams a new way to enforce policies at runtime without sacrificing agent productivity. Background Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s low‑code, enterprise‑focused builder for AI copilots and autonomous agents, integrated tightly with the Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Azure services...

Infobip’s integration with Microsoft Azure Communication Services (ACS) through the new Messaging Connect program suddenly makes carrier-grade SMS — including two‑way messaging and partner‑managed local numbers — available to Azure customers in dozens more markets, with Infobip claiming coverage expansion into “100+ additional countries” while Microsoft positions Messaging Connect as a path to reach 190+ markets via partner networks. Background SMS remains one of the most resilient and...

Microsoft and Cerence’s announcement at IAA Mobility 2025 that a voice-first, Microsoft 365 Copilot–powered assistant will run inside vehicles marks a decisive push to turn the car into a secure mobile office — but it also raises urgent questions about safety, privacy, enterprise governance, and competitive control of the in‑car user experience. Background / Overview Automakers and suppliers have been racing to redefine the vehicle cabin as a connected workspace and living space. The latest...