Here's what's new for the HTC Vive for July 2017!
A number of interesting titles are set to release for the HTC Vive this month, fit for the fan of any of virtual reality genre. Although we won't be getting any highly anticipated releases from big studios, some indie gems are on the horizon. Here's an in-depth breakdown of all the HTC Vive games releasing over the month of July 2017.
Note: This list is compiled from Steam store listings at the start of the month.
You can configure Game DVR on Windows 10 to capture videos at 60 frames per second (FPS) with 192kbps audio quality, and in this guide, we'll show you how.
If you're a core PC gamer, and you like to record your favorite games, you can appreciate Game DVR on Windows 10. However, there is one caveat, Game DVR by default records clips at a standard 30 FPS and audio at 128 kbps. While these are good settings for most users, if you have a powerful machine, these settings are perhaps inadequate if you're looking for the absolute best video recording.
Luckily, Game DVR can be configured to record clips with much higher quality, using 60 FPS with up 1080p resolution, and 192kbps for audio quality.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the easy steps to record game clips using Game DVR using the highest video and audio quality available using the Settings and the Xbox app.
If you have a powerful gaming PC, and you'd like to record clips at 60 FPS, use the following steps:
On "Video quality" select High.
After you've completed the steps, Game DVR will record games in at 60 FPS with up to 1080p resolution (depending on the game) and the highest audio quality.
It's also possible to change the same Game DVR video and audio settings using the Xbox app.
Use the "Video resolution" down-down menu and select High.
Once you completed the steps, game clips will record in at 60 FPS with the highest video and audio quality.
Using higher video and audio quality your computer will require more storage and system resources, which can affect performance. It's recommended to change these settings only if you have a very capable gaming PC. (You can always test the different settings available with Game DVR to decide which are the best video recording configuration for your machine.)
Another thing to consider is that Game DVR supports capture resolution up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. If the game uses a higher resolution, then the recording will be scaled down.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
Using an alternative to the big four wireless providers is a great idea for many of us, and here are some reasons why.
When we talk about phone companies, most of us automatically think of the big four here in the U.S.: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. But they're not the only choices when it comes to who you get your service from, and the popularity of alternative carriers is on the rise.
It's not difficult to understand why. Having a carrier that uses the same nationwide networks that the big guys do without some of the baggage that comes along with those big guys is an attractive position for a lot of people. There is a lot to talk, good and bad, in any discussion about finding the right carrier and whether or not a smaller alternative option is best for you. The advantages for you are especially important to consider.
Depending on how you use your phone (as always) you can save a nice chunk of money every month. Different companies use different ways to price out your data. Some will let you buy several months worth of data at significantly less compared to a monthly payment. Others let you buy an amount of data and use it until it's gone, and others charge a flat fee and bill or credit you based on how much data you use in a month.
Not everyone needs an unlimited data plan.
The thing they all have in common is that you're not paying for data you didn't use. Combined with cheaper prices per block of data this can mean a smaller bill if you don't use a lot of data. Alternative carriers are not for people who need unlimited data, but not everyone needs unlimited data.
Take Mint SIM for example. The company doesn't sell unlimited packages, but it uses T-Mobile's network to offer ultra-cheap 4G LTE data — as low as $2 per GB — in bundles of 2GB, 5GB and 10GB. And by bundling service into multiple months, you pay less when averaged out over a 12-month period.
This is the biggest reason people choose to move away from the big players in the industry and try something different. If you look at where you use your data and how much you use, you could be one of those people.
An alternative carrier doesn't own the cell towers and infrastructure it uses to provide service. They lease it at a set price from the bigger carriers and resell service to you and me. Sometimes they lease from more than one carrier and can provide service in all the places from both.
No carrier is good everywhere, but unless you're in a very rural part of the country you'll have at least one company with good service. A company that can offer service using two coverage maps has an advantage for anyone who spends time where they are covered by at least one.
Not all carriers do this, so be sure to do your homework when you choose. Two notable examples are Net10 and Red Pocket, which lease service from all four major carriers.
You're paying for calls, texts, and data. That's all you're going to get.
There's no denying that some of the perks phone carriers offer are nice. Unlimited texting to Canada and Mexico is a good example. But some folks just don't need anything extra.
By not having extra services, the price can be cheaper. If you don't need anything more than basic service and 4G data, an alternative carrier could be great for you.
Times can be tough, and less-than-great credit can make getting a post-paid account with the big four carriers difficult. And a credit check leaves a record on you that can adversely affect something like a car loan or mortgage.
If you don't want to go through a credit check for any reason, you might choose an alternative carrier that doesn't require one. Most don't, and you simply pay up front for what you use.
As long as it's compatible with the network you choose, you can bring your existing phone and use it without any problems.
You can also buy any unlocked phone that works with the network from anywhere you like. This gives you a lot of choices.
Best of all, you can change phones at any time. If you like the phone you have now, you can use it until you like something else better. With the cost of the service being completely separate from the cost of your phone any decisions are yours to make.
While they aren't for everyone, you can see there are some really compelling reasons to give an alternative carrier a try, even if they don't have the brand-power of the bigger ones.
Too much notification noise? Here's how to quiet things down on Windows 10.
On Windows 10, notifications keep you in the loop about things happening around your digital life, and they also alert you of anything in your system that may require your attention. However, each banner that slides out in the bottom-right corner also includes a sound, which can quickly get annoying.
If you're constantly getting notifications and muting the system volume or disabling notifications completely is not the solution, Windows 10 includes at least two ways to turn off the sound while still being able to see toast notifications.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to prevent notifications from playing sound using the Settings app and Control Panel.
If you want to turn off the sound for notifications, you can quickly do this for each application using the Settings app.
Under "Get notifications from these senders," click the app you want.
Turn off the Play a sound when a notification arrives toggle switch.
After completing the steps, apps you configured won't play sounds, but you'll see a banner in the bottom-right corner, and the notification will continue to be listed in Action Center as they arrive.
The only caveat with this approach is that you need to configure apps individually, which is fine if you're planning to keep a few high-priority apps with sound. However, if you're looking to mute all your apps, the easiest way to do this is to use Control Panel.
In the case, you have a lot of apps installed on your system, and you don't want to repeat the steps, you can use Control Panel to turn off sound for all notifications.
Click the Change system sounds link.
On the "Sounds," drop-down menu, select (None).
Once you completed the steps, you'll continue to get toast notifications and Action Center will work as before, but you'll not get annoyed with the same sound over and over again every time a new notification arrives.
Quick Tip: If the problem is that you're just tired of hearing the same sound (or stopped noticing that same sound because you've gone numb to it), you can use the Control Panel instructions to change the default sound, instead of turning it off. The only thing you need to do is to select a new sound on step No. 5.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
The necromancer is the newest playable class in Diablo III, sold as the Rise of the Necromancer DLC on Xbox One and PC.
A returning class from Diablo II, the necromancer brings a powerful array of undead magic and abilities to the game. Here are some suggested builds to help you make the most of this commander of the dead.
See Rise of the Necromancer on the Xbox StoreSee Diablo III: Eternal Collection on the Xbox Store
The necromancer is a dark priest that can summon undead minions and draw power from blood and death. Although necromancers were a playable class in Diablo II, they play a bit differently in Diablo III. For instance, they now have more active combat options that reduce the need to depend on minions in battle.
Most of the necromancer's abilities rely on the class's primary resource, "essence," which she draws from enemies. Attacking with her primary attack (assigned to the A button by default on Xbox One) replenishes essence. The maximum storable quantity of this life-based resource is 200.
The necromancer has an even more unique secondary resource, and that's corpses. Enemies she kills turn into dead bodies that can be used for further means. With the right skills, you can explode corpses like bombs, turn them into projectiles, drain them for essence, and revive them as minions.
Whichever way you want to play the necromancer, you'll be safest doing so at a distance. This class relies on ranged attacks and minions, so close combat can be extremely dangerous for our dark priest.
Some of these builds use two skills from the same category, thus foregoing another skill category. To equip multiple skills from the same category on the console version of Diablo III:
For this build, we've chosen skills that become available at early levels and remain worthwhile as you work your way up to 70.
This build uses Bone Spikes and Devour to keep the essence coming in. Summon Skeletal Mages and use Command Skeletons to provide yourself an army, augmenting your attacks with the Frailty curse. When things get too hectic, use Blood Rush to teleport away from the fray (at a small cost to your health).
This build was created by Deadset, a professional Diablo III player. You'll play with a melee style here, thanks to the Grim Scythe ability. It's recommended that you use the Inarius armor set for maximum effectiveness.
Another build intended for use with the Inarius armor set. This build revolves around the Corse Explosion ability, allowing you to take down living foes by blowing up the fallen ones. It's a good solo build, but the limited mobility limits its effectiveness for Bounties.
This build focuses on getting the most from the Corpse Lance ability. You'll use fallen enemies to generate projectiles, hurling them at anyone who stands in your way. The armor set that best complements this build is the Trag'Oul set.
For the player who likes to summon minions, this build focuses on acquiring a hoard of Skeletal Mages and Skeletons and keeping them around to fight in your place. You'll want to equip the Rathma armor set and use the Jesseth Skullcythe and Skullshield for your weapons.
Diablo III is the largest and most popular loot-hunting action-RPG on Xbox One and PC. On console, up to four players can team up locally or online to battle the forces of Diablo. While you'll find many Diablo-style games on Xbox One such as Victor Vran and Marvel Heroes Omega, the original game still has unmatched atmosphere, scale, and production values.
The Rise of the Necromancer DLC is available for $14.99. You can also pick up Diablo III: Eternal Collection, which bundles Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition with the Rise of the Necromancer DLC for $59.99. See our Rise of the Necromancer review for more details!
See Rise of the Necromancer on the Xbox StoreSee Diablo III: Eternal Collection on the Xbox Store
Microsoft's OneDrive now lets you view your files without having to download them using on-demand sync. Here's how it works.
OneDrive Files On-Demand is a new feature coming in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which allows you to access all your files stored in the cloud using File Explorer without having to sync them directly and use storage space on your device. It's a feature that's similar in concept to the now-defunct OneDrive placeholders.
Currently, OneDrive uses selective sync, which downloads every file to your device, but takes up a lot of space. On the other hand, with Files On-Demand only pieces of information (e.g., metadata and thumbnail image) about a file are stored locally. This is a faster and more efficient approach, which allows you to browse your entire collection of files without sacrificing local storage. At the time to work with a file, you simply double-click the placeholder to complete the download and open the file with an app.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll show you everything you need to know to use OneDrive Files On-Demand.
While using OneDrive Files On-Demand is a straightforward process, there are a few new things you need to know.
After enabling OneDrive Files On-Demand, you'll notice that browsing your files in File Explorer now get a new status badge in the bottom-left corner. These badges let you know whether files and folders are available only online or offline.
During the initial setup, OneDrive will prompt you to turn on Files On-Demand, but if you didn't turn that on or change your mind later, you can use these steps to enable or disable the feature:
Right-click the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, and select Settings.
Under "Files On-Demand," check the Save space and download files as you use them to enable the feature.
If you're looking to disable Files On-Demand, then clear the option described in step No. 3, but note that turning off this feature will download all your files configured to sync with OneDrive.
You can make files available offline in two different ways. You can double-click each file individually to trigger a download, or you can right-click one or more files, and select Always keep on this device.
After marking items as Always keep on this device, new files or folders you create on other devices, or using the web, will always sync to your computer. Otherwise, new files and folders will appear as online-only.
If you're running out of space, you can make files available without an internet connection online-only again. Simply, right-click one or more files, and select the Free up space option from the context menu.
Once you make files available online-only again, you'll still be able to view the files in File Explorer, but they'll appear with a white cloud with blue borders icon, and you'll need an internet connection to open them.
When you don't want certain folders available on your device, just like before, it's possible to choose which folders you want to see.
Click the Choose folders link.
Select which folders to make available using on-demand sync.
After you completed the steps, only those folders you selected will appear in File Explorer, and files will download as you try to open them, or when you manually select to keep them always offline.
Any file you delete (whether it's available online or offline) from the OneDrive folder using File Explorer will be removed from your OneDrive account and other devices.
If the file was previously downloaded to your device, you can quickly restore it from the recycle bin on Windows 10. In the case, it was an online-only file, then you can use the OneDrive recycle bin on the web to restore it.
OneDrive Files On-Demand is available now for testers, and everyone else will get this feature with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, including for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online customers.
In addition, remember that settings don't sync across your devices, you must configure the feature on each device you've linked to your Microsoft account.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
The numbers are in, and they say you probably don't need an expensive unlimited data plan.
Unlimited data plans are back. Here's some insight into why, as well as a look at how much data we really use every month.
We've recently seen all four major U.S. carriers introduce or revamp their unlimited LTE data plans. Multiple times. For some of us, this is great news. The folks who use upwards of 10GB of data on a line they pay for themselves found plenty of creative ways to hold on to older unlimited data plans, and sometimes that could be a hassle. Now they are available with a click of the mouse.
Unlimited plans coming back to AT&T and Verizon are a direct result of tough competition in the industry.
This wasn't unexpected. Companies such as T-Mobile and StraightTalk made people notice the cost versus value proposition of a cell phone data plan. AT&T and Verizon enjoyed a consumer mindset that they offered something superior, when for many people alternatives could be just as good. When people started to take note of that, it was time for a small shakeup.
People who will utilize an unlimited data plan and get their money's worth are outliers. Everyone can have a month where they are traveling or otherwise away from Wi-Fi and use a good chunk of data, but when you look at the numbers telling how much data is used per person on average, you see that most people would be better served with a cheaper plan that offers a capped data allotment.
The numbers back this up. According to NPD Connected Intelligence, one of the groups that your carrier and the company that made your phone use for insight into growth and planning, in 2015 the average amount of data used per person per month was about 3.5GB. During the same time period, customers on T-Mobile used an average of 5GB per month and Sprint customers used about 4GB per month. Both carriers offered unlimited data plans to any post-paid customer.
These are average numbers. That means some people will be wildly outside the average on both ends. You might use 100GB of data per month but someone who uses 0.1GB per month offsets your input towards the average. An average can't predict the highest amounts of data being used (or the lowest) but it is a great way to determine how much data the average person uses each month. There's a lot of ways this data can be used, and of course multiple ways it can be interpreted. For example, the average data a customer with access to an unlimited data plan uses isn't dramatically different from the amount someone without access to unlimited data uses.
People talking about new unlimited data plans means that they are doing what they were meant to do: Hype.
This means that the average person, regardless of network, doesn't need to pay for an expensive unlimited data plan. Unlimited plans are hype-fests that get everyone talking about something as mundane and boring as a cellular provider. The hope is that you'll decide you need to sign up for one even though you don't need one. Sure, you might use a little more each month knowing that you have an unlimited plan, but generally, people who weren't using large amounts of data before aren't going to use a lot of data after they switch.
None of this matters to the phone company. It has one goal: make money. That's how businesses work. Every decision, every promotion, every marketing campaign and everything else is a way to try and make more money. A company won't be around for long if it isn't trying to bank a profit. And sometimes, how that profit can be shown on a quarterly earnings report matters as much as the amount that goes into the bank.
The average revenue per unit, or per user, (ARPU) is the total revenue coming in from the service divided by the number of subscribers. It's also a pretty big deal in shareholders' reports and earning's calls.
ARPU is a number that translates into the amount of money a single line of service brings in over a set time. There can be a monthly ARPU, or a quarterly or yearly one. This number includes all the money you pay to your carrier minus tax and regulatory fees. That means things like extras you may be paying for (international calling or live TV for mobile devices) are included, as well as your normal contract or monthly price. The ARPU is an easy way for a company to track its income and growth over time, and each customer who pays for an expensive unlimited data plan brings this average up in a way that's statistically significant.
Your carrier wants you to be excited about, and ultimately sign up for, an unlimited data plan because of how it affects the bottom line as well as how much.
Another way your phone company looks at its finances is with an eye towards profit instead of just income. The profit from a customer can be more important than the overall income generated from one. A company can be healthy and profitable even with a low customer count, or vice versa. We see this in action when companies give earnings results.
Consider a hypothetical that's not too far removed from actuality. T-Mobile keeps pulling more and more customers away from Verizon Wireless. But Verizon is making more money and has a higher value. That means Verizon is making more profit per customer than T-Mobile.
Calculating profit is pretty simple. The service an account uses is tallied then compared to the amount of income that account generates each month. If you sign up for an unlimited data plan and still only use 3GB to 5GB of data per month, you help improve profit margins. All accounts are profitable, but some will be more profitable than others.
We're not trying to say your carrier is bad or unethical. This is just how business works when it comes to service providers.
Carriers need to offer you something that you feel is worth the monthly cost. If that means an unlimited data plan sounds like a good idea to you, one is available for you. With the U.S. telco market becoming more and more competitive, it was a given that all companies would offer a fixed service that included unlimited data for a fixed cost. Users who needed such a plan would sign on and help improve that income per customer metric, and users who didn't need an unlimited plan but signed up for other reasons helped improve the profit-per-user metric. This is how smart business works, and the people in charge at your carrier are smart businesspeople.
One thing to take away here: ask yourself how much data you need every month. No one answer fits everyone, but there is an answer that fits you. Compare how much you need to how much you're paying, and then check out what's available. A final metric that's harder to measure is how happy a customer is, and happy customers are loyal customers.
Make sure you're using a service that works for you and makes you a happy customer.
Here's a closer look at the changes included in Windows 10 build 16237 and 16232.
Windows 10 build 16237 is now rolling out in the Fast ring for PCs. This new release delivers a few new features and a lot of improvements that will be available later this year as part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
While build 16237 is a minor update, it still brings a number of small improvements to notifications and Action Center, Emoji, touch keyboard, Task Manager, and to the Settings app.
Windows 10 improves the way it handles scaling for High-DPI displays, Microsoft Edge also gets updated with a few new features and more.
Also, Microsoft recently released Windows 10 build 16232 to the Fast ring. It was not a big update either, but it included a couple of new security features, such as Controlled folder access and Exploit Protection.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll take a closer look at the features and changes that recently appeared in the past two previews of the upcoming Fall Creators Update.
On Windows 10 build 16237, the Start menu doesn't include new visual changes, but users with a touch-enabled device will notice that pressing and holding an app in the App List, the context menu will now appear after a moment without needing to lift your finger off the screen.
Notification banners now include a right-arrow button in the top-right to dismiss, instead of a X button to make it clear that the notification is being pushed to Action Center and you're not deleting it.
Action Center now auto-expands the first notification in each group to make easier for you to take action on your notifications.
Starting with this flight, the emoji panel is getting updated so that when you type to search, the result will also show new emojis from version 5.0. Also, hovering over an emoji, a tooltip will appear to reveal the exact name of the emoji.
The touch keyboard isn't getting significant changes, but it's improving the experience by adding sound every time you press a key.
According to Microsoft, the Game bar experience has also been updated with a new icon for Game Mode. Also, you'll notice the interface uses a light theme, but it's not clear if it's a bug, or if the original theme color will return in future builds.
Back on Windows 10 build 16226, Task Manager introduced the ability to track GPU performance over time. Now, on build 16237, Windows 10 is improving this experience with new interface tweaks and more details, such as the version of DirectX and physical location of the GPU in the motherboard.
Image source: Microsoft
Microsoft has also revealed that Task Manager will only show graphics information for hardware GPUs, while on software-only basic display adapters will remain hidden.
It's now possible to reset your password from the Lock screen without the need to use a different device.
When trying to sign in to your account, you'll now notice an "I forgot my password" link that appears below the password field.
If you ever forget your password, you can click that link to launch a page similar to the out-of-box experience (OOBE) featuring Cortana that can help you to quickly recover your password.
It also appears that Windows 10 is changing the "Welcome,""Signing Out," and "Shutting down" wording to "Just a moment" when signing in or out and powering off your machine.
In the past two flights, the Settings app has been getting a few improvements.
On Settings> Personalization, the Taskbar page renames the People settings to reflect that "taps" on My People are now known as "pops".
On Settings> Apps, now includes the Video Playback page to change settings for apps that use the video playback platform included with Windows 10. Previously, these settings were located in the Personalization section.
On Settings> Cortana, the Permissions & History page now includes a new option under "Cloud Search" to include or exclude cloud searches in results.
On Settings> Update & Security> Advanced options, the Delivery Optimization page includes new options to control download and upload bandwidth limits, and activity monitor.
Inside Advanced options, you can specify the amount of bandwidth Windows 10 is allowed to use every month to download and upload system updates and apps. When the limit is reached, Windows 10 will stop downloading updates on your device.
In Activity monitor, you can see update download and upload statistics for the current month.
File Explorer remains without visual changes, but now when trying to format a drive using NTFS, you will get additional allocation unit sizes that you can choose (up to 2048 kilobytes).
Also, the context menu when right-clicking an image file now shows an Edit with Photos option, and "Set as desktop background" has been renamed to Next desktop background.
On Windows 10 build 16237, Microsoft Edge is also receiving an update that bumps the version number to 41.16237.
This new version of the browser introduces a new animation to make clear that your link got saved in your favorite list.
Starting with this update, Microsoft Edge also expands its read aloud feature (previously only available for epub ebooks) to PDF files and web pages.
You only need to select the text in a PDF file or web article, right-click and choose Read aloud.
Alternatively, you can just click Read aloud from the browser's main menu.
Once you started the feature, you'll get access to controls to play, pause, skip to the previous or next paragraph, and you can also change the speed and voice.
In addition, the Share experience has been updated to appear below the Share button, instead of in the center of the browser.
On Windows 10 build 16232, Windows Defender Security Center introduced two important security features, including Controlled folder access for Windows Defender Antivirus and Exploit Protection.
Controlled folder access is a new feature that helps to protect your data from malicious programs and online threats, such as ransomware.
The new security feature works by monitoring the changes apps make to files stored in protected folders. In the event a blacklisted app tries to modify your files, you'll get notified about the attempt to prevent your files from being compromised.
If an app you trust is getting blocked, it's also possible to allow it through Controlled folder access by adding the app to the allowed list.
By default, Controlled folder access is disabled, but when enabled it protects those files inside the Documents, Pictures, Movies, and Desktop folders. While you can't remove the default protected locations, you can always add more folders to the list.
This new feature is available on Windows Defender Security Center> Virus & threat protection> Virus & threat protection settings.
Exploit Protection is an advanced security feature that allows you to audit, configure, and manage Windows system and application exploit mitigation settings in Windows Defender Security Center without the need to install additional tools. According to Microsoft, you can use this feature even if you're using a third-party antivirus.
This new feature can be found on Windows Defender Security Center> App & browser control.
Under "Exploit Protection," you can click the Exploit protection settings link to configure your system and applications options.
In addition to the changes already mentioned, build 16237 and 16232 include a number of other enhancements.
On Windows 10 build 16237, Microsoft is delivering changes to improve scaling on High-DPI displays.
For example, traditional desktop applications that become blurry after connecting or disconnecting an external monitor, or after using remote desktop, you no longer need to sign out to render them crispy again. You now simply need to restart the affected applications.
Additionally, message boxes created by win32 apps are now per-monitor DPI aware, which means that the boxes should no longer appear blurry when changing the DPI settings, or when having a multi-monitor setup with different DPI settings.
Microsoft's Hyper-V now includes a new "virtual machine gallery" under quick create, but this feature will be functional in later builds. "VM Name" and "Networking" options have been moved to the "More Options" section. And Hyper-V now offers a default network that shares your device network connection with your virtual machines using NAT.
Image source: Microsoft
Starting with Windows 10 Enterprise build 16232 network administrators can now configure a Group Policy to allow users access to their favorites, cookies, and saved passwords while using a Windows Defender Application Guard session.
As we get closer to the final release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, we're likely not going to see any more significant features. Instead, we'll start to see bug fixes, minor tweaks, and general improvements like the ones included with build 16232 and 16237.
Remember that like with any pre-release version; you should not be running these Windows 10 builds on your primary machine, as there are still bugs and things not working correctly.
If you're planning to use the latest preview build of Windows 10, it's recommended to use a virtual machine or a spare PC.
What do you think about the new improvements? Tell us in the comments.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
After four months since Orisa's introduction, Blizzard Entertainment revealed Overwatch's next hero release last Thursday — the menacing Doomfist, now playable on the PTR. Here's everything you need to know about the man behind the infamous gauntlet in one detailed, comprehensive guide.
Akande Ogundimu (Ah-kahn-dey Oh-gun-dee-moo) better known as the man currently undertaking the title of Doomfist, was born into a wealthy Nigerian family that owned a world-class prosthetics development company. As he grew older, Akande grew into a charismatic and intelligent young man, and he contributed these attributes to his family's company to help its business grow and improve. In his free time, he grew to love participating in competitive martial arts. He grew first to master several African fighting styles, then he slowly trained in techniques from all over the globe, incorporating a combination of them all into his form. As a result, Akande had a tremendous amount of depth and diversity in his fighting style, and he quickly rose to dominance in the African fighting scene. He continued to consistently defeat his opponents, and it looked like Akande would have a serious career in the martial arts business.
Unfortunately, Akande was gravely wounded during the Omnic Crisis, losing his right arm completely. His family's company was able to replace his arm with a highly-advanced prosthetic, but the unfair advantages it gave Akande in competition led to him being disqualified from all of his martial arts programs and tournaments. With nowhere else to turn, Akande returned to his job within the family business. However, Akande's true passion was combat, and his position within the company only gave him a fraction of the satisfaction he felt while defeating opponents in the ring. Seeing the man's yearning for combat, Akinjide Adeyemi — better known then as the current Doomfist, the Scourge of Numbani — offered Akande a position within his forces as a mercenary.
Akande saw the difference of competency between himself and Akinjide. Choosing to attack, Akande struck Akinjide down, taking the gauntlet and claiming the title of Doomfist.
True to his name as the Scourge of Numbani, Akinjide led Akande and other mercenaries in large raids against Numbani, frequently causing chaos in the usually peaceful African metropolis. Akande was finally able to participate in combat once more, and he did so with an unparalleled ferocity — none of Numbani's defenses were a match for him. As he sharpened his already impressive skills while working for Akinjide, Akande developed a belief that the way forward for humanity was conflict. Humanity could only improve through weeding out the weaklings in society. Seeing his potential as an idealist and a leader, Akinjide introduced Akande to the international terrorist organization Talon, a group that held beliefs very similar to Akande's. There, his combat prowess, as well as his intellect, impressed the other members of Talon's inner circle. Eventually, Talon's council members felt that Akande had grown both more powerful and more idealistic than Akinjide himself. Akande saw the difference of competency between himself and Akinjide as well. Choosing to attack, Akande struck Akinjide down, taking the gauntlet and claiming the title of Doomfist. He planned to plunge the globe into conflict, aiming to eliminate the weak members of society.
Before Akande (who I am now referring to as "Doomfist") could set plans into motion with Talon, however, he was attacked by the international peacekeeping force Overwatch, who had taken notice of his absorption into Talon and his sinister plans to start another World War. A strike team that consisted of Winston, Tracer, and Genji assaulted Doomfist in the streets of Numbani, and a horrifically violent battle ensued, in which Doomfist injured Tracer and Genji heavily. Luckily, Winston, in a primal rage, was able to overpower the deadly Talon leader and put him behind bars, where he would stay for several years under maximum security.
This was thought to be the end of Doomfist. Recently, however, the Talon mercenary and council member Gabriel Reyes (better known as Reaper) broke Doomfist out of prison. Freed of his chains, Doomfist quickly found and recovered his powerful gauntlet, using it to pulverize several of Numbani's OR-15 defense omnics before escaping the city with Reaper. Doomfist has returned — and it's only a matter of time before he attempts to spark a devastating war between all of humanity.
Doomfist is built to be a mobile, durable in-your-face hero that focuses on close range abilities and combos. Possessing 250 hitpoints, he can take a bit of a beating, similar to Reaper and Mei. Doomfist has an array of gear and utility at his disposal. First up in his lineup is his Hand Cannon.
Doomfist's hand cannon pic.twitter.com/5RvLvZTrFX
— Lor 'Tarkam (@LorTarkam) July 8, 2017
The Hand Cannon is a knuckle-mounted shotgun that deals roughly 60 damage per shot in close proximity. Like most ranged weapons, the damage on the bullets falls off over distance. Unlike most ranged weapons, however, it does not have to reload. Instead, ammo regenerates back into Doomfist's knuckles after one second. It can be fired rapidly to empty the clip, but it will take several seconds to have full ammo again.
Robot is dead, methinks pic.twitter.com/l5f3Sw5xwW
— Brendan Lor 'Tarkam (@LorTarkam) July 8, 2017
Perhaps the most defining aspect of Doomfist is his alternate fire ability, Rocket Punch. This ability does 50 damage to enemies, stuns them, and knocks them backward. The distance players are knocked back depends on how long the Rocket Punch is charged. If you knock an enemy player into the wall, the enemy will take additional damage, ranging from an extra 50 damage from a low-charged punch to 200 from a fully charged one. This means that Doomfist's Rocket Punch can be used near walls in order to do anywhere between 100 to 250 damage. To fully charge the punch, you need three full seconds of charging time. In addition, after using it, Rocket Punch has a cooldown of four seconds.
Uippercut pic.twitter.com/FumUxpWF6y
— Brendan Lor 'Tarkam (@LorTarkam) July 8, 2017
Next, Doomfist has an ability straight out of Street Fighter: Rising Uppercut. This ability does 50 damage to enemies and propels both them and Doomfist into the air. Both characters will hang in the air for two seconds before rapidly falling back to the ground.
Doomfist's seismic strike pic.twitter.com/F8v3GY9xZc
— Brendan Lor 'Tarkam (@LorTarkam) July 8, 2017
Doomfist's last normal ability is Seismic Slam. This attack causes Doomfist to leap forward, smashing the ground with his gauntlet and causing a small tremor in the ground similar to Reinhardt's Earthshatter. Heroes caught in this tremor will be pulled closer to Doomfist and take anywhere from 50 to 100 damage, depending on how high Doomfist (either airborne or on high ground) is above the enemy when he slams them. Higher altitude will net you higher damage.
Aaaand ULTIMATE.
— Lor 'Tarkam (@LorTarkam) July 8, 2017
Sorry peeps, need these posted on here to embed XD pic.twitter.com/eShwuPo8gx
Doomfist's Ultimate ability is Meteor Strike. When Doomfist activates it, he flies high into the sky and becomes both invisible and invincible while he chooses an area to strike. Once Doomfist presses primary fire, he flies back down, slamming into the ground and causing 300 damage to any hero in his immediate vicinity, and 150 damage to anyone near the main blast. This ability also stuns enemy heroes briefly.
Finally, Doomfist has a passive ability, called The Best Defense...— this ability grants Doomfist 30 shields whenever he lands hits on enemies with any of his abilities (except Hand Cannon) and grants him 75 shields for each enemy hit with his Ultimate. These shields will max out at 400 health, meaning that Doomfist can turn into somewhat of a small tank if his abilities are used effectively. These shields slowly diminish at a rate of 2/sec, so they won't last forever!
While Doomfist is versatile, his best strength lies in his ability to insta-kill flankers and defend his supports.
After playing him myself and analyzing pro players like Seagull trying him out, I've come to the conclusion that Doomfist is a very powerful hero, and his passive ability gives him a high amount of sustainability in fights. I believe that you can fit him into most team compositions, as he can be an effective offensive choice against both front-line heroes (D.Va, Soldier: 76, Reinhardt) and back-line supports (Zenyatta, Mercy) alike. However, while Doomfist is versatile, his best strength lies in his ability insta-kill flankers and defend his own supports. Your Rocket Punch has the ability to slam the squishier flanker heroes like Genji and Tracer into walls and kill them instantly, and it moves so quickly that they will have almost no time to react and use their dodging abilities like Tracer's blinks or Genji's double jump passive. If any enemies get close to your supports or fellow, squishier damage heroes, you can use Seismic Slam and Rising Uppercut to crowd control them (either pulling them into you or launching them into the air) and make it harder for them to target your allies, all while using your Hand Cannon and Rocket Punch to damage and stun them up close, with your passive shields helping to give you that extra smidge of survivability. Make sure that you "aggressively defend" your lower HP allies by attacking anyone who dares approach them!
There are some heroes you'll want to be wary of, however. Tank busters like Reaper and Bastion are extremely dangerous for Doomfist, as all of them can melt through his health up close before Doomfist can effectively combo abilities and build up protective shields. Snipers like Widowmaker and Hanzo can also pose a problem for Doomfist, as their strong long ranged damage potential can severely hurt or even kill Doomfist before he can close the distance. Pharah also makes life for Doomfist difficult, as she can stay airborne and avoid Doomfist entirely. Another counter to Doomfist is Sombra; he is very ability reliant, and if Sombra manages to hack Doomfist, he is left only with his Hand Cannon. Lastly, Orisa fares well against Doomfist, due to the fact she was built to counter him. Her Fortify ability prevents Doomfist from being able to knock her back or into the air, and her alternate fire crowd control ability can force him into positions that he doesn't want to be in. Against the rest of the cast, the match-ups are more evenly matched.
After spending a few days playing him, I've learned some interesting strategies and tricks you can pull off with our new favorite Talon operative.
What's your opinion of Doomfist? Do you agree with what I think his strengths and weaknesses are? Make sure to let me know in the comments. personally, I'm super excited to see Doomfist come to the live game, and I think he'll be a great counter to the current flanker meta-game in competitive. If you haven't picked up Overwatch yet, consider picking it up — everyone deserves the chance to be the Doomfist.
The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will offer new settings to reduce data usage to prevent going over your data limits.
Although Windows 10 can dynamically adjust the bandwidth use to download and upload updates, if you don't set your network adapter as metered on a capped internet connection, you still can go over your data usage.
However, this is about to change with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update as Microsoft has quietly introduced the ability to specify the amount of bandwidth your device uses to download (and upload) system and apps updates, which can help you to avoid going over your data usage limits.
Starting with build 16237 or later, you can go to Settings> Update & Security> Windows Update> Advanced Options> Delivery Optimization, and in this page, you'll find two new links: Advanced options and Activity monitor.
The Advanced options page includes new settings to adjust the amount of bandwidth your device uses each month to download and upload updates.
You can quickly enable, and override the current settings by checking the option you want and using the slider to set the amount of bandwidth your device is allowed to use in each month for downloads and uploads.
However, if you're thinking about sliding the download option all the way down, you should note that it's not possible to completely turn off Windows Update. You're only allowed to set this option as low as five percent.
Under the "Upload settings," it's not only possible to set a percentage of bandwidth you want to dedicate to upload updates to another computer, but you can also adjust the upload limit in gigabytes. (If your device is configured to receive updates from other PCs, and the "Monthly upload limit" is not enabled, then your PC can upload up to 500GB of data.)
When the limits are reached, depending on your configuration, your device will stop downloading and uploading updates for Windows 10 and apps until the next monthly cycle.
The Activity monitor page doesn't include any configurable settings, but you can see download and upload statistics for a given month.
In the Download Statistics section, you can view the amount of data downloaded from Microsoft, and from PCs on your local network or the internet.
In the Upload Statistics section, you can view the bandwidth used by your device to upload updates to other computers on your local network and the internet.
While you still can't disable Windows Update completely, this is yet another welcome addition that gives you a little more control over updates to prevent going over your data limits.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
Have you ever wondered if you're running an upgrade or clean install of Windows 10? In this guide, we'll show you how to tell.
Windows has received numerous releases through the years, and if you had the same computer for a long time, you probably went through a lot of upgrades.
If you're ever curious to see the upgrade history that led to the latest version on your system, Windows 10 doesn't reveal such information. However, you can use the Registry to accurately determine whether you're running an upgrade or clean install of Windows 10 and the number of times a new version of the OS has been installed.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to use the Registry (without having to modify anything) to check what type of installation you have. Additionally, we'll help you to answer other questions, such as which was the original version installed on your device, and the times an upgrade was applied with the exact date.
To figure out whether your device is running a clean or upgrade installation of Windows 10, you'll need to use the Registry with these instructions:
Browse the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
Quick Tip: If you're running the Windows 10 Creators Update, you can copy and paste the path in the address bar to jump directly to the location.
Once you've completed the steps, you'll have the answers a number of questions:
Inside Setup, you'll find a number of keys (folders). If you see the Upgrade key, then your installation is an upgrade. This key could have been created during an upgrade process from an earlier version like Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, or during a feature update for Windows 10.
Otherwise, if the Upgrade key doesn't exist, then you're running a clean installation of Windows 10.
If your installation is an upgrade, you can figure out which was the original version installed on your device, or at least the oldest upgrade since the last clean installation.
Alongside the Upgrade key, you'll also notice one or multiple Source OS keys, which correspond to each upgrade your device went through. You can navigate each key to determine the version (e.g., Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7) you upgraded from by looking into the ProductName String.
You can also determine each feature update that was applied to Windows 10 by looking into the ReleaseId String. For example, if you're running the Creators Update, one of the Source OS keys should include a String with the 1703 value. In addition, you may be able to find a key if referencing 1607 if at one point you installed the Anniversary Update, and 1511 for the November Update.
You probably noticed that each Source OS key has also a timestamp, this indicates exactly when the installation took place.
This could be valuable information that can come in handy in many scenarios. For example, if you're troubleshooting a problem, knowing exactly when your device was upgraded could indicate a compatibility issue with the newer version.
If you have a computer enrolled in the Windows Insider Program, you can also track information about each build applied to your system.
In the Setup key, you can quickly determine the times a Windows 10 Insider Preview was installed on your device. In addition, inside each Source OS key, you can check other pieces of information, such as the full name of the build, build number, and version by looking at the BuildLab, CurrentBuildNumber, and ReleaseId Strings.
While you can quickly determine the current version you're running by comparing the timestamp in the keys, the version you're currently running will also be listed inside Upgrade.
Important: Remember that resetting your device to its default settings or doing a clean install of Windows 10 will reset this information.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
Xbox Arena tournaments are here, and they are extremely easy to create!
Xbox Arena is a system that allows users to create their very own tournaments complete with notifications, scheduling, and more. The feature is rolling out more broadly as part of the July 2017 Xbox update, after being in testing for several weeks on the Xbox Insider program.
If you want to create your very own tournament, you'll have to follow these steps!
Scroll through the list, and hit 'A' on the Club you want to create a tournament for.
Note: If you haven't created or joined a Club yet, we have some guides on how to do that right here.
In your Club, navigate to the "Tournaments" tab at the top.
Here, you need to name your tournament, create team limits, add start dates and times, criteria, description, and other information.
Navigate to the hamburger menu in the top left corner, then select Clubs.
Note: You need to create tournaments within an Xbox Club. If you haven't created or joined a Club yet, we have some guides on how to do that right here.
Click on Your Clubs, then click on the Club you want to create a tournament for.
Click on Create a tournament.
You can hit the share button on the right side of the tournament page to advertise.
The new user-generated tournament system is just one of the few ways July 2017's Xbox update is helping gamers personalize their experience on Xbox Live. You can now add custom gamer pics and link controllers to sign in specific profiles too. See below for more info.
Today's Xbox One update will bring custom gamerpics, new Club features, and Mixer co-streaming to the public.
Having been in testing for several weeks, the latest Xbox One features are finally rolling out to the public today. Here's everything you need to know about the update, and guides on how to get up and running with the latest features.
First and foremost, you should check if you have updates available. The update will likely roll out in waves, so if it's not available at the time you read this, check again at a later time.
The biggest change this update will bring is the addition of custom gamerpics. Up until now, the ability to add custom gamerpics was restricted to Xbox Insider testers and users of the Xbox (beta) app on Windows 10.
The process to add a custom gamerpic is extremely straight forward, but it will require that you use a 1080 x 1080 square picture, so that it matches the Xbox One's high-definition user interface. Hit the link below for a full walk-through on how to get going.
How to create a custom Xbox One gamerpic
Co-streaming allows up to four players to simultaneously stream their game feed to a single Mixer page, which gives Mixer a definitive edge over Twitch to complement the service's extremely low latency.
Mixer co-streams were limited to invites via the website up until today, but now you can invite and initiate co-streams right from your console.
How to start a Mixer co-stream on Xbox One and PC
With this update, you can now attach a controller to your account. This is great for families who are sharing a single console, and also a great way to further personalize your experience by having a controller dedicated just for you.
To enable this, follow the steps in the link below.
How to attach an Xbox controller to a specific profile
There are also some updates for Xbox's fledgling Arena system in this patch, allowing users to create tournaments directly within Clubs. In tournaments, you can set a specific time, a description, and even pre-check registrations for combatants. As of writing, Arena only supports Killer Instinct, but no doubt more are on the way.
If you want to create your own tournament, see the link below.
How to create an Xbox Arena tournament on Xbox or Windows 10
The July 2017 update also brings some new features to the Android/iOS Xbox apps, as well as some updates for Clubs.
This Xbox update brings us closer to the launch of the Xbox One X, which is widely expected to launch with a Fluent Design System UI refresh. Whether it happens or not remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: Microsoft is aggressive with its updates to the console and showing no sign of slowing down.
Stay tuned to Windows Central for all the latest and greatest from Xbox, and in particular, the Xbox Insider Program where we'll get a first look at any upcoming features.
How do I completely close my Microsoft account?
Companies usually give you a bit of guff when you try deleting an account with them, but Microsoft has relatively few of hoops to jump through to do so. No matter the reason for deleting your account — switching to a new one, moving to a different OS, or just testing things out — the process remains the same. Here's how to do it.
Before you completely get rid of a Microsoft account, there might be a few loose ends that need tying up.
1. Cancel subscriptions: If you're subscribing to other services using your Microsoft account ID, cancel those subscriptions now. If not, you won't be able to access those services following deletion.
2. Set up an automated email forward: If you use an email address that ends in hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, or msn.com, your emails will no longer be available following the 60-day waiting period for final account deletion. You can manually send out messages, letting people know the account will be deleted, or you can set automated vacation replies.
3. Spend money: Once your Microsoft account is gone, so is all the money associated with it. Before deleting your account, spend any remaining moola on items you can keep after account deletion. Money that will disappear also includes any Skype credit.
4. Save your stuff: While using a Microsoft account, you might have been tempted to store data, like pictures in OneDrive or emails in Outlook. Following account deletion, that data will no longer be accessible if you don't back it up somewhere else that isn't associated with your account. Also, keep in mind that games you've purchased through the Microsoft account will remain playable, but you will lose saved game progress, your Gamerscore, and your Gamertag. If you use an Xbox Music Pass, that music will no longer be accessible.
5. Deal with sub accounts: Child accounts remain open even when you delete your account, but they will need another parent account to give them consent when attempting to log into a PC running Windows 8 or later, a Windows phone, or an Xbox.
6. Turn off reset protection: If you have reset protection enabled on any of your devices, be sure to disable it before deleting your account. If you don't, you might not be able to use the device once the account is deleted.
Remember, if you delete your Microsoft account and realize that something is no longer working, there is a 60-day grace period where you can retrieve your Microsoft account before it is deleted forever.
Once you've tied up any loose ends, you can delete your Microsoft account.
Click Next.
Click Sign in.
Click each checkbox after reading each one and understanding the ramifications of deleting your account.
Click an option.
Click Done.
If you realize you've made a mistake and you'd like to restore your Microsoft account, you can do so within 60 days.
Click Next.
Click Sign in.
Type the backup email address.
Type the code you receive, whether in email or text.
You can now continue using your Microsoft account as usual.
Updated July 11, 2017: We've refreshed this how-to to ensure you're still getting current information about how to delete your Microsoft account, how to restore your account, and the ramifications behind the action.
If you're going to buy characters for Marvel Heroes Omega, you'll want to get the best deal.
Marvel Heroes Omega is a free to play MMO that recently launched on Xbox One. Although you can play the whole game for free, several characters are available to buy in DLC bundles. This guide describes the contents of each DLC and exactly how much their components are worth!
See Marvel Heroes Omega on the Xbox Store
All Marvel Heroes Omega players receive enough free Eternity Shards at the end of the tutorial to buy one starter character. But you can get Daredevil for free too by picking him up from the Xbox Store.
Daredevil doesn't include any special bonuses or come with extra costumes, but you'll still be able to take him all the way up to level 60 and make twenty percent progress towards the Super Team Achievement for leveling give heroes to 60.
The cheapest premium character is Iron Man's sidekick James Rhodes, also known as War Machine. This pack includes:
Because War Machine can't be bought any other way, the main appeal of this pack is the exclusiveness of the character. But you get an extra costume (that looks better than the default one, in my opinion) and five dollars worth of currency that you can turn around and spend on another character or inventory upgrades.
The War Machine Pack does not contribute towards the Iron Fist and Symbiote Spider-Man bonuses, but that should only matter if you were planning on spending a ton of money to qualify for the bonuses anyway.
The War Machine Pack costs $16.99, making it a slightly better value than the Deadpool and Spider-Man packs.
Most of the Founder's Packs value a single character and items bundle at $20. That applies to the Deadpool Founder's Pack, which contains:
If you factor in the cost of the character and 500G of currency, you're basically getting an extra costume and XP boost for $1.50 extra. Considering the popularity of the character and his surprisingly good movie, many players will find this pack worth the price of admission.
The Deadpool Founder's Pack costs $19.99.
Like the Deadpool Founder's Pack, you get one character with this pack. The bonuses are different, though, and arguably more compelling.
Instead of 500G currency, the Spider-Man Founder's pack gives you two loot boxes worth 500G. Sure, you don't get to spend some Gs on whatever you want, but you might get something cool from those boxes. Besides, the extra costume is a sweet incentive, because costumes don't grow on trees in this game.
The Spider-Man: Homecoming Founder's Pack costs $19.99.
This pack contains two characters (three if you count Rocket and Groot as two) and bonuses that represent the same basic value as the Deadpool and Spider-Man packs.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Founder's Pack contains:
A slightly better deal than the Deadpool pack, the Guardians pack includes one extra costume and three extra XP boosts compared to that pack. For $40, you're getting two great characters (plus Groot helps Rocket with several of his moves), three bonus costumes, and enough currency to buy one or two extra characters. Maybe you could grab Angela, who is a Guardian in the comics.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Founder's Pack costs $39.99.
Here's where things really get expensive. Both the X-Men and Avengers packs cost sixty bucks, but they include so much stuff that they end up being a pretty good deal.
The X-Men Founder's Pack includes:
So that's six characters, six bonus costumes, $20 of currency, and ten high-value boosts for sixty bucks. The characters alone would be $63 if purchased separately. It's still a lot to spend, but with all these mutants, you might as well think of it like you're buying an X-Men game that happens to include other Marvel characters. You could even put that currency towards a fellow X-Man or two such as Cyclops, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Magik, who aren't included in the pack.
The X-Men Founder's Pack costs $59.99.
At the same price as the X-Men pack, the Avengers Founder's Pack includes:
This pack gets you six Avengers, their Age of Ultron movie costumes, $20 of currency, and ten high-value boosts for sixty bucks. The only thing that makes the Avengers pack a bit of a worse deal than the X-Men pack is several of these characters cost less than the X-Men characters when bought separately. Still, for sixty bucks, it's basically like buying an Avengers game – and you still have $20 worth of currency for extra characters or inventory slots.
The Avengers Founder's Pack costs $59.99.
As the store descriptions put it, committed, hardcore players who buy all five Founder's Packs get a dedicated fan bonus that includes:
Both rewards are timed exclusives, meaning you'll be able to buy Iron Fist separately and win the Symbiote costume at some point in the future. Iron Fist is a great character (despite what the Netflix show would have you believe), but he doesn't come with his green costume, and his moves are a little buggy at present on Xbox One. Don't feel too disadvantaged just because you can't afford $200 worth of Founder's Packs!
Out of the Marvel Heroes Omega DLC packs available at launch, it's the War Machine, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and X-Men packs that offer the most bang for your buck. But you should really just buy the pack(s) that contain your favorite characters. Most of us can't afford to grab every single character, but remember: Marvel Heroes is an MMO. How many characters will you really spend time playing?
Assuming you fall in love with the game as I did while preparing our review, buying a DLC pack is a great way to support the continued development of the game. If Marvel Heroes Omega thrives on Xbox One, we're sure to see more characters, costumes, and missions in the future. Since the base game is free, what have you got to lose?
Do you find using a mouse to manage your Excel worksheet a bit of an annoyance? Would you rather command it from your keyboard? Then you need to learn about keyboard shortcuts.
There are quite a few command and customization options in Excel that can be accessed through the Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar. Did you know that you can quickly find and execute command functions from your QWERTY companion? Here a list of some of the keyboard shortcuts that will save you a mouse click or two.
These are but a selection of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Excel. If you're the kind who prefers clicking keys over mouse buttons, you'll find that using shortcuts will help you get your project or report done in less time. Do you use keyboard shortcuts in Excel? What are most commonly used shortcuts? Let us know!
Here's the breakdown on how much data streaming music and video use so you know how much to budget.
The things most of us love to do with our phones is also the thing that eats the most data: stream music and video.
Modern phones and streaming services were made for each other. Your phone is capable of delivering high-quality content through the screen or its audio components and streaming services like YouTube, Netflix and Spotify were made to deliver them. The first popular media-centric phone was the iPhone. Both Apple and Google owe a lot of their success to this because it was also the best way to watch YouTube in the palm of your hands.
Things have come a long way since then, but one thing hasn't changed. We love to watch and listen with our phones. But the advent of HD video streaming and high-bitrate audio streaming means that it also gobbles up the data like never before. Let's break it down to see just how much data you use when you fire up your favorite streaming app.
While some services offer super-HQ streaming music, most services use the same scale: Low, Normal and High. And most use the same bitrate (the number of bits per second that are transmitted digitally) to define each category. Here's how they look and how much data each will consume.
"Average" is the key word here. Most services offer streaming service that auto-adjusts based on your network conditions, and some use lower quality bitrates for all categories. But most any other service, including Spotify, follow these guidelines when you don't have things set up to auto-adjust.
As you can imagine, streaming video uses a lot more data than audio does. There's just more information being transmitted. And your network conditions play a big part in how the media is streamed because nobody likes buffering. Thankfully, apps are smart enough to ask for a video stream that will work with the available network speeds and buffering is mostly a thing of the past. Mostly. Note that this hidden feature will usually override your settings when it has to, but if you ask for an HD or 4K video, you'll get it if it can be delivered.
Here's how the streams break down on average.
Again, these are averages and Netflix has helped by telling us how much data their service uses. Compression, variable quality based on network conditions and your phone's cache will all factor in here, but these numbers are a pretty safe bet.
A typical data plan that's not unlimited (and not from T-Mobile or other company who practices zero-rating) comes in 2GB, 5GB and 10GB flavors. If you wanted to stream media while using your data connection, here's what each tier will allow:
A 2GB plan will let you stream
A 5GB plan will let you stream
A 10GB plan will let you stream
We followed the industry standard 1,000MB = 1GB formula here and not the "real" calculation of 1,024MB in one GB. That's because your carrier might do the same. And remember — these are close estimations. Because of how data is compressed and bitrates changed based on every situation, my measurements may be a little different than yours. And none of this takes any rounding your carrier might do into account. To us, 1.7MB is 1.7MB, not 2MB.
Streaming HD media uses a lot of data. Know this before you decide how much you need.
One thing these figures show is that you're always better off using Wi-Fi to stream high-quality media. Besides the data savings, Wi-Fi also has a more robust signal that will mean less degradation or compression. Your internet company probably optimizes media traffic, but not nearly as much as your wireless carrier does. You can also use services that let you download or pin your media while you're on Wi-Fi and play it back later.
Just be aware that if you watch 8-hours of HD video every day, you're going to need upwards of 300GB of data. That means you'll need an unlimited plan that doesn't have the fine-print telling you "unlimited" stops at 22 or 24GB then gets too slow to stream. Such an animal doesn't exist, and carriers that zero-rate aren't going to serve you 2K video (or even 1080p).
Uses these numbers to plan out how much data you need for streaming if you're shopping for service.
Microsoft's Dictate brings speech recognition to Office using Cortana's technology, and here's how to use it.
If there is one feature missing in Word, Outlook, and other Office apps is the ability to type hands-free. Sure, you can set up speech recognition in Windows, but it's not a really good experience, and it's a feature that hasn't been updated in a long time.
However, if you speak faster than you can type, the Microsoft Garage team has created Dictate, a new add-in that brings a good speech-to-text experience to Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
While Dictate is an experimental project, it's a powerful tool. It uses Cortana's speech recognition technology to convert voice into text in more than twenty languages, there is support for voice commands to control a dictation session, and it also includes real-time translation in sixty different languages.
In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to add and use Dictate to incorporate speech-to-text functionality into Office apps.
The installation of Dictate is a two step process: first, you need to identify whether you're using the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Office, and second, you need to go through the setup wizard.
Click on Account.
Click the About Word button to see which version you have installed.
Download Microsoft's Dictate using one of these two links:
To start typing hands-free in Office, do the following.
Click the Start button.
Once you turn on the feature there aren't special settings that you need to configure, just start dictating and see the magic happen.
The add-in also adds punctuation automatically, which means that as you speak depending on the phrase and pauses you make, Dictate will try to add a question mark, comma, or period. However, if you want to stay in control, you can always turn off this feature by clicking the Manual Punctuation button in the Ribbon menu.
Dictate for Office also includes a number of voice commands (English) that you can use during a dictation session:
Perhaps one of the best features with Dictate is the ability to translate what you want to type in sixty different languages.
If you need to write a report or reply to an email in another language, you simply select your language in the From drop-down menu, and in the To drop-down menu, pick the language you want to translate. Then click the Start button to begin translating.
The add-in shows some minor difficulties trying to make accurate translations, but it does a decent job considering that it's doing all the work on the fly.
Although Dictate may not be perfect, and it's not available in all the Office apps, you still have to give the Microsoft Garage team credit, as for an experimental project, it's pretty darn good.
During my short time testing, real-time translation worked very well, and I've even tried to compose a message while playing music in the background and the add-in responded without a hitch. I'd personally like to see Microsoft fully integrating Dictate into Office.
Dictate works on Windows 10 as well as on Windows 8.1, and you can use it in Office 2013 or later versions.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
How do you protect your Windows phone?
Windows 10 Mobile has built-in Reset Protection that can stop someone who gets their hands on your phone from resetting it and making it their own. Reset Protection isn't available for all Windows phones; only some newer phones that have build 8.10.15127.138 or later installed. Here's how to enable and disable Reset Protection when you still have your phone, and also how to disable Reset Protection.
The first time you set up your Windows phone, you'll be asked if you'd like to accept some recommended settings. If you accept the settings and your phone supports Reset Protection, it will be turned on automatically.
If you didn't choose to go with recommended settings during setup, or if you chose to initially forego Reset Protection, you can still enable it.
Tap Update & security.
Tap Turn on. (You might be asked to enter your phone's PIN.)
That's all there is to it. You will receive an email regarding Reset Protection. It mentions the fact that if you have account two-factor authentication set up on your phone, you should add an email as an alternative.
If you're getting rid of your Windows phone, you should first disable Reset Protection. This is also the case if you're deleting your Microsoft account. (Note: Turning off Reset Protection requires you to completely wipe the phone, so only do so if you've backed up all your data.)
Tap About.
Tap Yes again.
This will turn off Reset Protection, but it will also completely reset your phone and wipe all of your data.
Phone already out of your hands and you now realize you forgot to turn off Reset Protection? As long as your Microsoft account is still active, you can disable it remotely.
Click Remove phone.
Click Remove. (You should receive an email containing your recovery key. It will also be displayed in your browser.)
Click Next.
That's it. Done and done.
On Windows 10, it's possible to configure Local Group Policy settings for one particular user or group. Here's how to do it.
The Local Group Policy Editor is a powerful tool that gives users running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise a relatively easy way to customize advanced options that are usually not configurable through the Settings app (or Control Panel).
However, on a shared computer scenario, no matter whether you use "Computer Configuration" or "User Configuration," policy changes will always apply to every user account on your device, and there isn't an option to assign those changes to specific users.
If you're looking to change advanced settings on Windows 10, but you want to apply them to a specific user or group, you can still accomplish this task using the Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe).
In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through the steps to apply policy changes only to a particular user or group.
To customize advanced settings for other users on Windows 10, and not globally, use the following steps:
Select the Add/Remove Snap-in option.
Click the Add button.
Click the Browse button.
Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, select the user or group of users to which you want to apply a particular setting. (For the purpose of this guide, we'll be selecting a specific user account.)
Click Finish.
Once you complete the steps, you can make policy changes as you would normally, but using the console you just created the changes will only apply to the user or group you specified with the steps mentioned above.
Here are a few examples you can use to try these steps:
This guide focuses on Windows 10, but you can use the same instructions for Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and earlier versions.
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
