Azure VM

Microsoft is currently participating in VMware Explore, the official VMware conference that is ongoing in San Francisco until Sept. 02. At the event, Microsoft is meeting with customers and partners, while also introducing a major update to Azure VMware Solution.

Microsoft says its ongoing partnership with VMware has been strengthened, bringing support for VMware Cloud Universal. This means users on Azure VMware Solution are now part of the program. The Cloud Universal program delivers a flexible platform for purchasing and using hybrid and multi-cloud methods.

Elsewhere, Azure VMware Solution has the following major changes, including extended availability:

• “Global expansion to 24 regions: Since the launch of Azure VMware Solution two years ago, we’ve been working to support customers globally with geographic expansion to 24 Azure regions, more than any other cloud provider.
• Azure NetApp Files datastores for Azure VMware Solution is now in public preview. For your storage-intensive workloads running on Azure VMware Solution, the integration with Azure NetApp Files helps to easily scale storage capacity beyond the limits of the local instance storage provided by vSAN and lower your overall total cost of ownership for storage-intensive workloads.
• Public IP to NSX Edge capability for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available in 17 Azure regions. Most customer applications running on Azure VMware Solution require internet access requiring both outbound and inbound internet connectivity. With this new capability, there are now three primary patterns for creating inbound and outbound internet access to resources on your Azure VMware Solution private cloud.
• Enterprise VMware Cloud Director Services for Azure VMware Solution is now in Public Preview. Customers who have Azure VMware Solution deployed under their Microsoft Enterprise agreement can purchase the VMware Cloud Director Service from VMware and connect their Azure VMware Solution private cloud to create and manage private virtual datacenters and leverage vCloud availability for migrating on-premises VMware workloads to Azure VMware Solution private clouds.
• Jetstream DR for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available, providing customers with disaster recovery protection needed for business and mission-critical applications while leveraging cost-effective cloud storage such as Azure Blob Storage. JetStream DR can also replicate and automate recovery to Azure NetApp Files datastores.
• VMware vRealize Log Insight Cloud for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available. This service provides centralized log management, deep operational visibility, intelligent analytics, and improved troubleshooting and security. This boosts IT organizations’ operational efficiency, mitigates costs arising from unplanned downtime, and reduces organizational risk by providing visibility into security-related events.
• VMware vSphere 7.0 is now available globally for all cloud deployments in Azure VMware Solution.”

Ongoing Success

If you’re unfamiliar with Azure VMware Solution, it helps organizations run their workloads in the cloud. It migrates on-premises workloads into the cloud efficiently.

Some of the most popular VMware tools are integrated into the experience, including HCX, vSphere, vSAN, and NSX-T. Microsoft has also included the Azure Hybrid Benefit extension, which gives organizations more compatibility with SQL Server and Windows Server on-premises.

Microsoft Edge is the default browser on Windows, as you would expect considering it is Microsoft’s own platform. However, the company gives users the choice to switch to other default browsers, among them Mozilla Firefox. We recently reported how switching to another default browser (or any program) will become more difficult on Windows 11.

To overcome Microsoft’s various paths to change the default, Mozilla has quietly made some changes. The company is making it easier for users to switch permanently to Firefox. The changes will work on Windows 11, as well as Windows 10.

With the release of version 91 of Firefox, Mozilla included a method for setting the browser as default in Windows. In fact, this was a clever bit of reverse engineering, taking Microsoft’s one-click default choice for Edge and applying it to Firefox.

In other words, it is now possible to set Firefox as the default from directly within the browser.

“People should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults, but they don’t,” Mozilla tells The Verge. “All operating systems should offer official developer support for default status so people can easily set their apps as default. Since that hasn’t happened on Windows 10 and 11, Firefox relies on other aspects of the Windows environment to give people an experience similar to what Windows provides to Edge when users choose Firefox to be their default browser.”

Windows 11 Changes

With the launch of Windows 11 next month, making non-Microsoft apps default will be more difficult.

On Windows 11, users get just one chance to see and select browser alternatives before Microsoft hides them Specifically, like on Windows 10 when you open a web link for the first time, or install a new browser, the platform gives you the opportunity to select it as default.

Unless you choose “always use this app” this first time, the browser will not become default. Sure, this is the same as normal, and equal to Windows 10. Users simply could right click a file, web link, app, or shortcut and choose the “open with” option and then “always use this app”.

On Windows 11, this process is different and more confusing. Instead of a catch all toggle like “always use this app” or “always open with this program”, Microsoft is changing app defaults. The company will now force users to set defaults for every link type or file. Yes, instead of a universal toggle, you have to work through each format like HTML, PDF, SVG, HTTPS, etc.

For example, to set Mozilla Firefox as the default browser, you will need to change the default across 11 individual file types. Of course, this is an overly complex process with the only explanation being Microsoft is trying to make it harder for users to choose other browsers.

Tip of the day: Did you know that your data and privacy might be at risk if you run Windows 10 without encryption? A bootable USB with a live-linux distribution is often just enough to gain access to all of your files.

If you want to change that, check out our detailed BitLocker guide where we show you how to turn on encryption for your system disk or any other drive you might be using in your computer.

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft is now rolling out Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 to Windows 10 users. With this latest preview for VS 2022, Microsoft is adding several new features. Among the additions are a dark theme update, support for multi-repo Git, and a new project designer.

Starting with the project designer, Microsoft says the tool works with .NET SDK projects. With the designer, Visual Studio 2022 users can create projects more easily. This is possible through a single columns of actionable tools that are more clearly defined.

While previous VS 2022 previews have supported dark theme, Microsoft says Preview 3 is adding improvements. In fact, the company describes these improvements as “big changes”. For example, a new accent color provides a viewing experience that is easier on the eyes.

Although it was rolled out in Preview 2, Microsoft is talking up the Hot Reload support for C++ apps in the Preview 3 changelog. Earlier this month, Microsoft published a blog post highlighting the benefits of Hot Reload.

In terms of code, the new Hot Reload, it can work alongside the existing XAML Hot Reload feature. Furthermore, it also works in unison with debugger capabilities like breakpoints that are already part of Visual Studio 2022 Preview.

Changelog

• “One example is the improvements in the attach to process dialog. The dialog is now async, shows the command line arguments for processes, IIS information for w3wp.exe processes, and lasty the dialog has an optional tree view mode for showing parent-child process relationships. These capabilities reduce a lot of the friction in deciding which process to debug in advanced scenarios.
• With Preview 3 there’s a brand-new project properties designer for .NET SDK projects. The new designer is easier to use and browse with a single column of options with clear descriptions. Best of all the new designer has built in search so it’s now easy to
• Dark theme improvements: In preview 3 you’ll see big changes to the dark theme to improve the usability of Visual Studio. The new dark theme has a new accent color, which is less intense, and used more sparingly to reduce distraction and eyestrain. The new accent color now matches the latest product visual identity, which helps you quickly find the right window when they are navigating among multiple tools.
• With Preview 2, Hot Reload now supports C++ apps.
• Developing modern apps: With Visual Studio 2022, we are building tools to both support your existing applications and tools for building the latest types of applications. For example, in preview 3 we’re adding new capabilities to run tests in Linux environments and a new project types for frontend development with React and Vue.js applications using either TypeScript or JavaScript.
• Remote testing: With remote testing you can now get feedback from your cross-platform tests, and even debug them from the comfort of Visual Studio! The feature works with a range of remote environments such as Linux containers, WSL, and over SSH connections – empowering you to test modern cross platform .NET applications.”

Tip of the day: By default, the most used apps group in your start menu shows the six most frequently used apps. However, you can customize your Windows 10 Start Menu to exclude certain apps from the list or get rid of the most used apps section entirely.

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft has released a tool to make it easy for organizations to manage their Windows Virtual Desktop environments. Called Azure Monitor, Microsoft says the tool is now generally available from this week.

The big benefit of Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) is the ability to gain betting insights into virtual desktop environments.

Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) allows users to create a virtualization of Windows 7, Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus apps and third-party apps. With WVD, customers receive remote desktop sessions by running virtualizations in Azure virtual machines.

While WVD provides a secure way to run Windows on the cloud, it has some complex components. The aim of Azure Monitor is to make the complexities of the service less of a problem.

“With Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop, you can find and troubleshoot problems in the deployment, view the status and health of host pools, diagnose user feedback and understand resource utilization,” Microsoft’s announcement points out.

Improvements

As Azure Monitor moves to general availability, it comes with the following improvements over the preview version:

• Improved data collection and new guidance to help you optimize for cost
• Updated setup experience with easier UI, expanded support for VM set-up, automated Windows Event Log setup, and more
• Relocated Windows Virtual Desktop agent warnings and errors at the top of the Host Diagnostics page to help you prioritize issues with the highest impact
• Accessibility enhancements
• Workbook versioning: GA release is Version 1.0.0

Azure Monitor is not free, so it’s worth checking out Microsoft’s pricing page here. The company recommends customers start with pay-a-you-go pricing and adjust to scale once more usage information is known.

Azure Monitor only works with the latest version of Windows Virtual Desktop of newer. Interestingly, Microsoft does not specifically say which version this is.

Source Winbuzzer

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are technologies that promise to change our way of life. While they can be transformative in entertainment, VR and AR also open doors in industry and eventually the possibilities could be endless. The biggest names in tech are already taking VR and AR seriously, but one is conspicuous by its absence… Apple.

While giants like Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Sony, and others already have VR and AR hardware/platforms, Apple does not. Still, we are told regularly that the company is serious about the technology. We are told Apple’s advancements are at least on par with its rivals, minus the hardware.

We are told one day Apple’s developments will reach market in the form of a platform and device. A new report by Bloomberg suggests that may happen. However, it seems Apple remains in no rush to jump on board the VR train. In fact, the report says the company’s first headset will not arrive until 2022.

As we have come to expect from Cupertino, the product will be high-end. It will also reportedly be aimed at a niche market with Apple not expecting big sales. That said, the device will be consumer-focused and capable of gaming, communication, and video. Furthermore, it could also support AR in some capacity.

Is this Apple’s big play, developing a headset that is both VR and AR? We are used to Apple defining categories by making devices useful to everyday users. Combining VR and AR technology could be a major step forward.

High-End Specs

Although, the report points out AR is not the focus of the headset. Instead, VR will be the leading technology. Apple still has bigger plans for AR, including a pair of glasses that will likely arrive later.

Developed under the codename N301, Apple’s headset will be made of premium materials and could rival Microsoft’s HoloLens in terms of price ($3,500). The company will use the most powerful processors it has at its disposal and a fan to keep the device cool. Elsewhere, it is constructed of fabric materials and displays that best the resolution of any VR headset currently available.

That fan has caused some design problems, the report suggests. With a fan and high-end components, the headset is too big and uncomfortable. To save size, Apple removed compatibility for people who wear glasses.

Instead of cutting out a larger percentage of the population with that space-saving, the company has included a way to slot prescription lenses into the headset.

How this will work remains to be seen and it is worth noting we are very much in the rumor phase with this story.

Tip of the day:

Did you know you can use Windows 10´s built in antivirus Microsoft Defender also with scheduled scans? In our tutorial we give you step-by-step instructions on how to program your personal scan-schedule to keep your free of malware.

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft has announced a new tool that will help cloud customers better understand their carbon emissions. Called the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator, the product has landed in private preview ahead of a future launch.
According to Redmond, the aim of the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator is to give customers more oversight across their carbon output. More specifically, to become more transparent about what their environmental impact is.
“It’s challenging to make and meet meaningful carbon reduction goals without the ability to measure carbon emissions,” Microsoft says.

Microsoft has announced a new tool that will help cloud customers better understand their carbon emissions. Called the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator, the product has landed in private preview ahead of a future launch.

According to Redmond, the aim of the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator is to give customers more oversight across their carbon output. More specifically, to become more transparent about what their environmental impact is.

“It’s challenging to make and meet meaningful carbon reduction goals without the ability to measure carbon emissions,” Microsoft says.

By leveraging AI technology, the calculator provides accurate accounting for carbon usage. It highlights the impact caused by Microsoft cloud service across an organization’s footprint. Armed with the information, company’s can make concise decisions about their environmental impact.

For example, the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator measures the impact of moving regular applications to the cloud and how this can reduce the carbon output of a company.

Carbon Negative

It looks like the tool goes hand-in-hand with Microsoft’s own push to be carbon negative by 2030. Redmond made that pledge earlier this year. The decision followed a 2017 commitment to cut 75% of its carbon emissions by the same date and builds on 2019 revisions of 70% renewable energy by 2023.

“While the world will need to reach net zero, those of us who can afford to move faster and go further should do so,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said of the new commitment. “That’s why today we are announcing an ambitious goal and a new plan to reduce and ultimately remove Microsoft’s carbon footprint.”

Source Winbuzzer

AMD made bold claims at CES 2020 last month, including that its Ryzen H-series of laptop chips would be on-par with Intel’s high-end and even the i7-9700K. However, its main comparison was against its competition’s current offering, the i7-1065G7. Intel may not be advancing at the same pace as AMD, but it has new chips due sometime this year.

Now, Twitters _rogame has spotted 3DMark results that pit the 4800H and an RX 5600M against Intel’s i7-10760H Comet Lake with a 2060 Max Q. The results are quite interesting. The 4800H edges by 10-11% in individual graphics and physics scores, but Intel wins out by 7.8% in the combined test.

The graphics score of a 3D Mark test measures just the GPU and the physics score solely the CPU. As you’d expect, combined tests both, which indicates that Intel has found a better meshing between the hardware at this early stage, perhaps due to power management.

AMD made bold claims at CES 2020 last month, including that its Ryzen H-series of laptop chips would be on-par with Intel’s high-end and even the i7-9700K. However, its main comparison was against its competition’s current offering, the i7-1065G7. Intel may not be advancing at the same pace as AMD, but it has new chips due sometime this year.

Now, Twitters _rogame has spotted 3DMark results that pit the 4800H and an RX 5600M against Intel’s i7-10760H Comet Lake with a 2060 Max Q. The results are quite interesting. The 4800H edges by 10-11% in individual graphics and physics scores, but Intel wins out by 7.8% in the combined test.

The graphics score of a 3D Mark test measures just the GPU and the physics score solely the CPU. As you’d expect, combined tests both, which indicates that Intel has found a better meshing between the hardware at this early stage, perhaps due to power management.

For reference, the 4800H is an 8-core/16 thread 43W with a base close of 2.9 GHz. The i7-10750H has 6 cores and 12 threads with a base of 2.6. However, the Intel chip is able to achieve a higher boost clock than AMD’s chip, at 4.69 GHz vs 2.97 GHz. 3D Mark tends to reward higher clock speeds over cores, being primarily based on gaming performance.

As a result, we may see Ryzen giving even better results in scenarios that can better utilize its cores. That could include tasks like 3D rendering, editing, and general multitasking. Even so, you can’t fully trust benchmarks at this stage as they may be based on prototype hardware or have other inaccuracies.

It’ll be interesting to see how they stack up once reviewers get their hands on them, as this could be the first truly convincing laptop lineup AMD has managed to muster. The question for Microsoft fans, of course, is what the company’s Surface lineup will go with, the Surface Laptop 3 somewhat unsuccessfully breaking the mold with a Ryzen offering.

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft is focused on giving our clients industry-driving execution for every one of their outstanding burdens. Subsequent to being the main worldwide cloud supplier to report the sending of AMD EPYC™ based Azure Virtual Machines in 2017, we’ve been cooperating to keep carrying the most recent development to endeavors.

Today, we are reporting our second-age HB-arrangement Azure Virtual Machines, HBv2, which highlights the most recent AMD EPYC 7002 processor. Clients will almost certainly build HPC execution and versatility to run physically bigger remaining burdens on Azure. We’ll additionally be bringing the AMD 7002 processors and Radeon Instinct GPUs to our group of cloud-based virtual work areas. At last, our new Dav3 and Eav3-arrangement Azure Virtual Machines, in see today, give more client decision to meet an expansive scope of prerequisites for universally useful outstanding tasks at hand utilizing the new AMD EPYC™ 7452 processor.

Our developing Azure HPC contributions

Clients are picking our Azure HPC contributions (HB-arrangement) consolidating original AMD EPYC Naples for their exhibition and versatility. We’ve seen a 33 percent memory data transfer capacity advantage with EPYC, and that is a key factor for a considerable lot of our clients’ HPC outstanding tasks at hand. For instance, liquid elements is one remaining task at hand in which this preferred position is profitable. Purplish blue has an expanding number of clients for whom this is a centerpiece of their R&D and even creation exercises. On ANSYS Fluent, a broadly utilized liquid elements application, we have estimated EPYC-controlled HB examples conveying a 54x exhibition improvement by scaling crosswise over almost 6,000 processor centers. Furthermore, this is 24 percent quicker than a main uncovered metal arrangement with an indistinguishable InfiniBand organize. Furthermore, not long ago, Azure turned into the primary cloud to scale a firmly coupled HPC application to 10,000 centers. This is 10x higher than what had been already conceivable on some other cloud supplier. Sky blue clients will be among the first to exploit this ability to handle the hardest difficulties and enhance with reason.

New HPC, universally useful, and memory streamlined Azure Virtual Machines

Purplish blue is proceeding to build its HPC abilities, thanks to a limited extent to our coordinated effort with AMD. In primer benchmarking, HBv2 VMs including 120 CPUs from the second era EPYC processor are exhibiting execution additions of more than 100 percent on HPC remaining tasks at hand like liquid elements and car collision test examination. HBv2 adaptability points of confinement are likewise expanding with the cloud’s first sending of 200 Gigabit InfiniBand, on account of the second era EPYC processor’s PCIe 4.0 ability. HBv2 virtual machines (VMs) will support up to 36,000 centers for MPI outstanding tasks at hand in a solitary virtual machine scale set, and up to 80,000 centers for our biggest clients.

We’ll additionally be bringing AMD EPYC 7002 processor to our group of cloud-based remote work areas, blending with the Radeon MI25 GPU for clients running Windows-based conditions. The new arrangement offers exceptional GPU resourcing adaptability, giving clients more decision than any time in recent memory to measure virtual machines right from 1/eighth of a solitary GPU up to an entire GPU.

At long last, we are likewise declaring new Azure Virtual Machines as a feature of the Dv3 and Ev3-arrangement—improved for broadly useful and memory concentrated outstanding burdens. These new VM sizes highlight AMD’s EPYC™ 7452 processor. The new broadly useful Da_v3 and Das_v3 Azure Virtual Machines give up to 64 vCPUs, 256 GiBs of RAM, and 1,600 GiBs of SSD-based impermanent capacity. Moreover, the new memory enhanced Ea_v3 and Eas_v3 Azure Virtual Machines give up to 64 vCPUs, 432 GiBs of RAM, and 1,600 GiBs of SSD-based brief stockpiling. Both VM arrangement bolsters Premium SSD plate stockpiling. The new VMs are as of now in see in the East US Azure area and with accessibility coming soon to different areas.

Da_v3 and Das_v3 virtual machines can be utilized for a wide scope of broadly useful applications. Model use cases incorporate most venture grade applications, social databases, in-memory reserving, and investigation. Applications that request quicker CPUs, better nearby plate execution or higher recollections can likewise profit by these new VMs. Furthermore, the Ea_v3 and Eas_v3 VM arrangement are enhanced for other enormous in-memory business basic remaining burdens.

Details shortly…Azure.Microsoft