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BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

Has Windows 10 November Update (Threshold 2) reset your privacy settings and default apps?

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 5:31pm CET par Mark Wilson

Windows 10 has caused greater privacy concerns than any previous version of the operating system. You may well have spent some time tweaking settings so that you are in control of your privacy and limit the tracking that Windows 10 is able to do, but if you have installed the latest big update you may well have to do it all again.

In addition to resetting their privacy settings to their defaults, many people have reported that installing Windows 10's November Update has wiped out any personalization of default apps. This is just the latest in a series of slip-ups which sees Microsoft upsetting Windows 10 users. So how do you know if your settings have been changed?

Head to Settings and click Privacy. In the General section check through the various privacy options, and disable any settings that have magically re-enabled themselves. There are a couple of ways to change default app settings, but first off all head to System in Settings and move to the Default apps section. Here you can see the default apps for a few key file types, and reset any which have been changed in the background.

You will notice that the number of file types you can tweak here is rather limited. If you find that a particular file is opening in the wrong app, hold down the Shift key while you right click the file and select Open With from the menu. You can then click the More Apps link, check the Always open this app... box and select the app you want to use.

It might seem silly that you should have to go through all of this for a second time if you have already spent time customizing things to your liking, but in many ways this is very much in keeping with the launch of Windows 10.

Did you find that your customizations had been reset?

Photo credit: Roobcio / Shutterstock
Microsoft details four commitments to help rebuild trust in the cloud

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 4:28pm CET par Mark Wilson
In a lengthy, rambling blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith explains how what has happened in relation to security over the past year is shaping the company's attitude to the cloud. He says that "it's time to rebuild the world's faith in the technology that empowers us all".

He takes a while to get to the point, meandering slowly around anecdotes about Windows 10, Edward Snowden, terrorist attacks in Paris, hacking, and governmental desires to weaken encryption. He says that these and other events "show it's crucial to have a conversation about worldwide information security".

Smith makes the point that it can be difficult to comply with the differing data storage and security laws around the world. Despite this, he wants Microsoft to be a voice for the people as well as standing up for the right of governments and businesses. The new Microsoft is all about the cloud ("mobile first, cloud first" as we have been told ad nauseum) after all.

Smith says that Microsoft has been inspired by the events of the last twelve months, including the Sony hack, the continued revelations from Edward Snowden, and the Charlie Hebdo attack in France. He also makes four promises to "governments, enterprises, consumers, and people around the world":
- We will keep their data secure.
- We will ensure people's data is private and under their control.
- We will figure out the laws in each country and make sure data is managed accordingly.
- And we will be transparent so people know what we are doing.
He goes on to explain what Microsoft will do for businesses:

We stand behind our technology with contracts to ensure we have strong and specific security safeguards. We process customers' information only as they instruct us, and we put in place strong regulatory compliance to meet their needs. We will tell them, whenever we're permitted, what the government is doing to access their data, and if we need to we'll go to court to vindicate those rights when that's the proper thing to do. Finally, we will continue to advance transparency.

Smith's post is worth a visit for a couple of reasons. Wade through the self-congratulatory guff, and there are some interesting stats about the legal processes Microsoft has gone through, and some great info about what has been happening for the last year, and how different countries approach data and security requirements. It's also beautifully presented -- go take a look.
Microsoft's Project Oxford can detect human emotions

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 12:15pm CET par Sead Fadilpašić

In a scene in the 2014 sci-fi movie Robocop, the namesake main character analyzes his enemy’s emotional condition and concludes that violence is imminent.

You can say he successfully detected emotions. For a living person, that isn’t really a big deal, but for a computer, that’s science fiction. Or, to be precise, that was science fiction. Not any more.

Microsoft has announced plans to release public beta versions of new tools in its Project Oxford, one which can help developers create smarter apps, including those that can recognize emotion.

Project Oxford includes four main components -- face recognition, speech processing, visual tools, and language understanding intelligent service (LUIS).

The new tools are ideal for those who are not really experts in artificial intelligence, but would still love to use AI capabilities in their apps.

The emotion tool can be used to create systems that recognize eight core emotional states -- anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness, neutral, sadness or surprise -- based on universal facial expressions that reflect those feelings. The tool is available to developers as a public beta.

"Developers might want to use these tools to create systems that marketers can use to gauge people’s reaction to a store display, movie or food. Or, they might find them valuable for creating a consumer tool, such as a messaging app, that offers up different options based on what emotion it recognizes in a photo", Ryan Galgon, a senior program manager within Microsoft’s Technology and Research group said.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: kaczor58/Shutterstock
Firefox users are stuck with unremoveable Pocket... for now at least

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 12:06pm CET par Mark Wilson

Earlier in the year Mozilla took the decision to build Pocket into Firefox. Previously available as an add-on, the 'read it later' tool was transformed into an integral part of the browser. While this was a move welcomed by some users, others are concerned about the privacy implications.

There are also concerns that having Pocket built in unnecessarily bloats Mozilla's code, but it looks as though it is here to stay. Speaking to Venture Beat, director of engineering for the browser said "there are currently no plans to offer a version of Firefox that doesn’t include Pocket".

What has upset many Firefox users is the fact that Pocket cannot be removed. It can be disabled, but this is not the same thing. There are calls for Pocket to be moved back to being an add-on. Even if it is a built-in add-on, this would still give users the option of getting rid of it if they wanted.

Firefox engineer Dave Camp told Venture Beat:

We're always experimenting with better ways to deliver value to Firefox users. 'Go Faster' is the working title of one such experiment we're doing with Firefox for Desktop. Go Faster introduces the idea of shipping a feature as a system add-on. These system add-ons will enable us to get features and fixes to users on a reduced cycle time. There is work underway to make our Pocket integration one of these system add-ons that ships as part of the core product. Separately, we are investigating the utility of Firefox users being able to disable or remove system add-ons from their installation. And as I said in July, we are committed to incorporating this consideration into any future partner integrations.

There's no indication of when this experiment might see the light of day, so for now it would appear that Firefox fans are lumbered with Pocket.

Photo credit: smutny pan / Shutterstock
Microsoft gives Distributed Machine Learning Toolkit to the open source community

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 1:42am CET par Brian Fagioli
While Microsoft may be looked at as the enemy of open source, it actually does contribute to the cause. In fact, I am comfortable saying that the company embraces open source; although closed source ideology will always be its "bread and butter".

Today, the Windows-maker announces that it is making yet another one of its projects open source. The Distributed Machine Learning Toolkit seems quite interesting and could prove valuable.

"The toolkit, available now on GitHub, is designed for distributed machine learning -- using multiple computers in parallel to solve a complex problem. It contains a parameter server-based programing framework, which makes machine learning tasks on big data highly scalable, efficient and flexible. It also contains two distributed machine learning algorithms, which can be used to train the fastest and largest topic model and the largest word-embedding model in the world", says George Thomas Jr., Microsoft.

Thomas further explains, "the toolkit is unique because its features transcend system innovations by also offering machine learning advances, the researchers said. With the toolkit, the researchers said developers can tackle big-data, big-model machine learning problems much faster and with smaller clusters of computers than previously required".

Microsoft shares the following components of the project.
- DMTK framework: A parameter server, which supports storing a hybrid data-structure model, and a client SDK, which supports scheduling client-side, large-scale model training and maintaining a local model cache syncing with the parameter server side model.
- LightLDA: A new, highly efficient algorithm for topic model training that can process large-scale data and model even on a modest computer cluster.
- Distributed Word Embedding: A popular tool used in natural language processing, the toolkit offers the distributed implementations of two algorithms for word embedding: The standard Word2vec algorithm and a multi-sense algorithm that learns multiple embedding vectors for polysemous words.
If you want to give it a look, you can access the toolkit here. If you want to see all of Microsoft's open source projects, and see just how involved in OSS the company is, simply click here. Heck, if you want to reach out to Microsoft about open source issues or offerings, you can email it at oss@microsoft.com.
Delete the Scan With Windows Defender content menu entry from Windows 10 (Threshold 2)

Publié: novembre 14, 2015, 12:32am CET par Mark Wilson
If you've installed the November Update for Windows 10 (or Threshold 2 if you prefer) there are a number of changes for the better to enjoy. But there are some changes that you might not be happy with, and the arrival of a new Scan With Windows Defender entry in context menu is something that is likely to grate with many people.

It might be that you have no intention of using Windows Defender, or your context menu may have become unwieldy and need a little trimming. Either way, a quick registry hack is all that's needed to banish the unwanted option. Here's what to do.

Even if you remove the Scan With Windows Defender entry, you'll still be able to scan files -- you can just fire up the app manually and take it from there. You might think that disabling Windows Defender would get rid of the menu item, but you'd be mistaken. So, gird your loins, and hit the registry.
- Press the Windows key and R, type regedit and hit Enter.
- Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ {09A47860-11B0-4DA5-AFA5-26D86198A780}
- Right click this key and select Delete.
- Click Yes.
That's all there is to it!