Windows Live Hit By Outage

By Digital Trends Staff Published July 24, 2014

If you were trying to access your Hotmail account or instant message via Windows Live messenger on Tuesday and had problems, there’s a reason. For much of the day, Windows Live Services were down, according to a story on TechNewsWorld. The problem didn’t seem to affect those already signed in to the service, but the Live ID log-in procedure seemed to have issues. Along with mail and instant messaging, calendars, photo sharing and storage were among the services affected. The problem was fixed by the end of the day. The timing, however, was unfortunate, coming a day before Microsoft launched its Windows Server 2008 OS for servers, although the company said there was no connection between the outage and the new OS. The problem appeared to be global, according to various blog reports. Windows Live product manager Samantha McManus said, "Our customers have come to expect a high level of service reliability in their experience with Windows Live and Microsoft worked aggressively to resolve this unique problem as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused consumers."

Digital Trends Staff

Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…

Computing

Windows 11 may finally take iPhone collaboration to the next level

microsoft testing improvements on iphone to pc sharing connectivity phone link ios setup

Microsoft is now establishing file-sharing support between iPhones and its Windows 11 or Windows 10 PCs. Users will be able to connect the devices with the brand’s Phone Link app and Link to Windows app to enable the function. Currently, the feature is available to Windows Insiders users for testing purposes.

Microsoft has not shared other details about the iPhone to Windows file-sharing feature, just installation instructions. To use this function, you must install the previously released Phone Link for iOS app. Microsoft made the Phone Link for iOS app available last spring enabling iPhone users to receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, view notifications, and access contacts directly on Windows PCs.

Computing

Bid farewell to this small but helpful Windows 11 feature

The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

As Microsoft mentions in a December 12 blog post, Windows 11 users will soon no longer receive future updates for the suggested actions menu. The helpful feature would offer you related actions when you copy items like dates or phone numbers with actions to create an event or make a call.

Microsoft first introduced the feature in a Windows 11 2022 update. It made the suggested actions menu appear and gave contextual information based on the copied data. Microsoft describes the feature as follows: "Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are deprecated and will be removed in a future Windows 11 update."

Computing

Windows 11 can now run on unsupported systems, but there’s a catch

A laptop sits on a desk with a Windows 11 wallpaper.

Microsoft is now allowing users to update to Windows 11 on older, unsupported hardware, including systems that don’t meet the operating system’s strict hardware requirements.

While the company initially set these requirements — including the need for a TPM 2.0 chip and specific processor models — to ensure performance, reliability, and security, it has now provided a manual installation option for those who want to use Windows 11 on unsupported machines.