A new study from WinMagic has revealed that organisations are largely unprepared for when support of older versions of Microsoft’s Windows will be withdrawn in January 2020.

The study was carried out during this year’s IP Expo working in london once the company surveyed 150 people to Europe’s largest IT exhibition and conference on their own understanding of the need to migrate to Windows 10.

WinMagic’s study discovered that nearly a quarter of businesses (23%) have yet to start preparations for that migration to Windows 10 and that 17 percent were unacquainted with the subject all together without any idea if preparations within their organisation are even in place.

Additionally, one third of respondents (30%) had no idea that support for older versions of Windows would stay in under 18 months’ time.

Growing migration concerns

Of the attendees surveyed, only 29 percent were fairly or very concerned while one third (34%) didn’t have concerns about migrating to Windows 10.

The ones that are worried about the migration cited security and user loss of data his or her biggest concerns (28%) while 68 percent feared the migration process could expose their organisation to some security vulnerability. Other concerns included application management (25%), software and hardware compatibility and user disruption or lack of productivity (18%).

When it found actual migration process, 36 percent had not considered migration technology as an option and 28 per cent of respondents didn’t know if their organisation was considering migration technology. Additionally, around 1 / 3 (33%) did not know if they currently had the correct tools in place to deliver a safe and secure migration.

VP EMEA at WinMagic, Luke Brown provided further insight on the findings of the company’s survey, saying:

“The clock is ticking and when organisations don’t move fast they might end up scrabbling last second to deliver a seamless and secure migration to Windows 10. The outcomes of our survey reveal that there is still limited knowledge around what’s going to be considered a very significant IT transition for a lot of organisations. IT teams need to take action now. If they don’t, come January 2020 they could end up experiencing the worst ever Year hangover.”

Windows 10 made solid gains in September, albeit not quite as much progress because the previous month, with Windows 7 falling quite heavily – and Apple’s macOS made headway at the expense of Microsoft’s desktop operating system in general.

That’s the story going by the latest figures from analytics firm Net Applications, using the breakdown for all desktop operating systems showing that Windows 10 reached 52.38% of share of the market in September, a rise of 1.39%. As mentioned, that’s not quite as impressive as the major gain of 2.13% witnessed in August.

Despite Windows 10 not doing quite this type of good job of poaching Windows 7 users this month, the latter outgoing operating system fell by a significant amount: 2.2% in fact.

That’s a significantly larger drop compared to 1.49% decline seen in August, and it leaves Windows 7 having a share of 28.17% of desktop PCs. Windows 8.1 also dropped 0.72% in September, and is dwindling away on the total 3.48% share.

Mac attack

So, Windows 10 didn’t gain as much as it ought to did evidently of it, looking at the quantity of folks abandoning the older Windows os’s, but some from the overall shift was felt elsewhere – in Apple’s PCs, actually.

The latest version of macOS (10.14) forged ahead to a 7.15% market share this past month, up considerably from 5.95% recently (and even the 4.85% share macOS 10.14 held if you go back to February).

Considering all versions of macOS collectively, Apple’s operating system rose to an overall share of 11.55%, up strongly from 9.68% the previous month. Granted, it had been on 10.6% back at the beginning of the entire year, however this continues to be a full percentage point better than we’ve seen throughout the span of 2019. And indeed much better than the Mac operating system has ever done going back to 2016 (that is in which the historical statistics from Net Applications tail off).

In the overall picture, of course, it isn’t surprising to see Windows 7 decline, since end-of-life for that aging OS rolls around in January 2020, just a couple months away now.

Even though the boost for macOS is one thing of the eye-opener. That said, we’d be foolish to place that much stock in a single month’s figures in one source, as there could simply be statistical variances at play to some degree. But still – when the Mac creeps up again the following month, maybe we’ll begin to see an upward trend for Apple computers.

Which would certainly make things interesting…

Yahoo is also known as the only real good alternative to Google, and truth be told, Microsoft may be the only tech giant as well as the Mountain View-based rival that keeps purchasing search engines.

Bundled into Windows 10 as well as in other products from various companies, Bing is currently the second most-used internet search engine, comprising 33 percent of all searches in the United States, based on Microsoft’s very own figures.

But a study conducted by Standard reveals that despite the market share, Bing doesn’t necessarily provide the best results.

Researchers compared the very best 50 recent results for 13 different queries on Bing and Google, discovering that Microsoft’s search engine displays links to sources referred to as spreading disinformation and misinformation more often than Google’s.

“In reaction to a search for “white helmets” – the Syrian civil defense group that’s been the subject of disinformation campaigns conducted through the Syrian and Russian governments-Bing shows users a minimum of 12 disinformation articles and untrustworthy sources in the top 50 results. Google shows three,” the study reveals.

Russian propaganda

As far as conspiracy-related submissions are concerned, Yahoo is once again trailing behind Google.

“For example, if you search Bing for comet ping pong, you get Pizzagate-related content in its top 50 results. Should you search for fluoride, you get content accusing the U.S. government of poisoning its population. And when you look for sandy hook shooting, you will find sources claiming that the event was a hoax. Google does not show users conspiracy-related content in its top 50 recent results for these queries,” the comparison notes.

Simultaneously, Bing also shows more information related to Russian propaganda than Google, with lots of more links to RT and Sputnik shown on Microsoft’s search engine as compared to Google’s.

Microsoft is yet to release any comments on this study, however the company often brags about Bing being “bigger than you believe,” so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what the company says about these findings.

Ads in Windows 10 is really a topic that keeps returning occasionally, but simultaneously, additionally, it keeps evolving, as Microsoft is experimenting with new ways to highlight other products.

Specifically, not a years ago, many Windows 10 adopters referred to the app suggestions showing up in the Start menu as “ads,” especially simply because they pointed to third-party titles and not necessarily to apps produced by Microsoft itself.

Go forward even today and here’s Microsoft trying another strategy. Small banners that demonstrate up in specific apps pre-loaded in Windows 10, also called core apps, advertise Microsoft apps, including Microsoft News and Microsoft Outlook for cellular devices.

It’s a brand new approach that has quickly become rather controversial, especially because many believe that Microsoft shouldn’t bring ads to a product which they paid.

While I’m not likely to spend over our limits time discussing whether Microsoft has the to introduce apps in the own Windows 10 apps, there’s two stuff that must be said here. First, Windows has been pushed from the traditional platform to Windows as a Service, so it’s constantly evolving and receiving new updates. And 2nd, customers pay for the authority to use Windows, to not own the merchandise.

Returning to ads in Windows 10, let’s see two such examples that many people already spotted.

In Mail for Windows 10, the e-mail client that’s offered as native in the OS, there’s now a small banner within the left sidebar that recommends users to download Outlook for Android. It doesn’t even matter if you already run Outlook for Android, and it doesn’t even matter if you’re logged along with exactly the same Microsoft account as in Windows 10. The ad is still there, and there’s not a way to get rid of it.

Weather for Windows 10 is another core app showing a small banner in the sidebar. This time around, users are told to test Microsoft News, and clicking the ad points these to a webpage where they’re provided with instructions to download the app on their mobile devices. Again, there’s no method to steer clear of the banner from turning up.

Opinions appear to be rather mixed on whether ads in Windows 10 are the right way to go.

Some think the present approach isn’t by any means intrusive, as the small banners can barely be viewed. Our long-time reader @Buddahfan told me on Twitter:

“I use the Windows 10 Mail App a minimum of many times a day. Evidently I am not very observant or maybe blind because I never noticed the tiny banner within the lower left before I just read an article about it. Then I needed to put on my glasses to actually view it.”

On the other hand, Joshua Rob asked on mail if there’s any way to disable the ads because “Microsoft is playing it dirty and using Windows 10 to create its mobile apps seem accepted they really are.”

A discussion in the Feedback Hub, Microsoft’s feedback platform Windows 10, also requires Microsoft to get rid of the Outlook mobile ad from Windows 10’s Mail client.

“Need an option to remove redundant ads – I have the telephone app, I’ve the outlook on my cell phone, I personally use MS launcher – the windows 10 outlook ads on a small computer screen use real estate I need!” one user explains.

Microsoft has to date remained tight-lipped on these banners in Windows 10 core apps, so for the moment, it’s still unclear what the long-term plan really is.

Are Windows 10 ads the proper way to go moving forward or should Microsoft take them off? Let us know what you believe in the box below.

It appears as though Windows 10X could run regular Windows applications, that is good news for anyone who desired to run popular Windows 10 programs on their dual-screen devices.

A leaked document shows that Windows 10X will support Win32 apps. This really is noteworthy, as it’s the very first time we’ve seen mention that Windows 10X, which is a special version of Windows 10 made to operate on dual-screen devices like the upcoming Surface Neo, could be able run regular Windows 10 apps.

Microsoft has previously released ‘special’ versions of Windows 10, like Windows 10 S, which are restricted to only running certain apps (such as UWP apps from the Microsoft Store), therefore the proven fact that Windows 10X might not have those restrictions – enabling you to run your favorite applications without worry – is welcome news.

Appy days

Of course, this doesn’t mean Windows 10X will definitely have the ability to run every Windows 10 app in existence. The mention of the Win32 app support is only brief, and appears in leaked documentation that has since been deleted.

Based on Windows Latest, that has published the most recent leak, the document states that “Office – Co-existence of Win32 apps and PWA (Progressive Web Apps) on Santorini; associated with Shellification efforts.”

Now, that might seem like lots of jargon, but what it really might be suggesting is the fact that Windows 10X (codenamed Santorini) will come with PWA versions of Microsoft Office applications – however, you might upload the entire Win32 versions if you’d like.

Like a previous rumor suggests that Windows 10X will also operate on regular laptops, as well as dual-screen devices, the opportunity to run regular Windows 10 programs would be most welcome. Let’s hope this leak turns out to be correct.