Microsoft's SharePoint, a web-based collaboration tool used by hundreds of millions of professionals, was targeted by several high-profile attacks last month.

These attacks, which targeted US federal and state agencies, universities, and energy companies — including the National Nuclear Security Administration in the US — forced Microsoft to issue emergency patches to clear up the issues.

Following an investigation into the root of the two zero-day vulnerabilities, Microsoft announced on August 20 that it had reduced access to its Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) for some Chinese companies (via Bloomberg).

MAPP, which is led by the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), is a system that shares early vulnerability info with Microsoft's partners, allowing them to deploy proper protection through security updates.

The newfound limitations to MAPP quietly took effect last month. According to David Cuddy, a Microsoft spokesperson speaking to Bloomberg, MAPP's newfound limited access will apply to "countries where they're required to report vulnerabilities to their governments." That, of course, includes China.

Since the SharePoint attacks, which began as early as June 24, 2025, Microsoft has placed at least part of the blame on Beijing.

On July 22, Microsoft's Threat Intelligence division published a report detailing the CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771 vulnerabilities, in which it was observed that "two Chinese nation-state actors, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon," were the ones exploiting vulnerabilities with SharePoint servers.

A third China-based bad actor, which Microsoft tracked as Storm-2603, was deploying ransomware through the same vulnerabilities. Beijing has denied any complicity in these SharePoint exploits.

Microsoft's Active Protections Program is tightening its borders

Despite Beijing's denial of involvement in the SharePoint hack, the rate at which these vulnerabilities against unpatched systems were exploited caused Microsoft to look into MAPP to discover any leaks or rogue members.

It evidently found some, and some significant changes are coming to how MAPP operates. According to Microsoft's spokesperson, the company will no longer offer "proof of concept code" to certain MAPP members affected by the change, including those in China.

In this case, proof of concept code is essentially designed to mimic or demonstrate how malicious software operates. It's typically used to patch security, but it can also be hijacked by bad actors to get ahead of security updates. You can see how Microsoft put this process and the early SharePoint attacks together.

Rather than offer proof of concept code to China — which has about a dozen tech and security companies enrolled in MAPP — Microsoft will now provide "a more general written description" of vulnerabilities at the same time as security patches for the issues.

A spokesperson from the Chinese embassy in Washington is quoted in the Bloomberg report as saying that they were not familiar with the security report's details, noting that China "opposes and fights hacking activities in accordance with the law." The spokesperson added, "At the same time, we oppose smears and attacks against China under the excuse of cybersecurity issues."

This isn't the first time that MAPP has come under fire for vulnerability leaks related to China. In 2012, Microsoft blamed MAPP member Hangzhou DPTech Technologies for an NDA breach that let slip a major Windows exploit.

In 2021, an attack on Microsoft Exchange servers was also blamed on leaks from MAPP participants, with Microsoft focusing on at least two Chinese companies for exploiting the vulnerabilities.

In a statement to Bloomberg at the time, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "China resolutely opposes any form of online attacks or infiltration. This is our clear and consistent stance. Relevant Chinese laws on data collection and handling clearly safeguards data security and strongly oppose cyber-attacks and other criminal activity."

These leaks ultimately led to the Chinese state-sponsored hacker group Hafnium wreaking havoc on Windows defenses for years.

It also led to Microsoft considering potential changes to MAPP, including how much critical intelligence the company shared with partners in certain countries. In retrospect, it seems that those changes should have come sooner.

Details of the recent SharePoint "ToolShell" attack

The SharePoint attack that kicked off the most recent changes to MAPP involved two zero-day attacks. "Zero-day" refers to previously unknown vulnerabilities that are attacked.

While the attack didn't put cloud servers at risk, tens of thousands of on-premise servers were affected.

The attacks, which targeted vulnerabilities identified as CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, were nicknamed "ToolShell," and they were, for a time, being actively exploited by bad actors.

As Director of Threat Intelligence at Check Point Research, Lotem Finkelstein, stated at the time of the attacks:

"We’re witnessing an urgent and active threat: a critical zero-day in SharePoint on-prem is being exploited in the wild, putting thousands of global organizations at risk. Our team has confirmed dozens of compromise attempts across government, telecom, and tech sectors since July 7. We strongly urge enterprises to update their security systems immediately — this campaign is both sophisticated and fast-moving.”

This is a developing story, and we will update it with more information as it becomes available.

The Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability known as "ToolShell" is the center of global attacks across United States federal and state agencies. Universities, energy companies, and an Asian telecommunications company have also been attacked.

In total, more than 50 organizations have been affected by a pair of recently discovered zero-day vulnerabilities. Among those organizations are the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Energy Department.

The NNSA is a semiautonomous arm of the Energy Department. Among other broad-ranging responsibilities, the NNSA produces and dismantles nuclear arms. The agency is also involved in counterterrorism efforts and the transportation of nuclear weapons.

According to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke with Bloomberg, no sensitive or classified information is known to have been compromised in the attack.

The Energy Department shared the following statement with Bloomberg:

“On Friday, July 18th, the exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy. The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored.”

Microsoft shared additional details about the attack in a security blog post. The tech giant confirmed that it observed two named Chinese nation-state actors exploiting the SharePoint vulnerabilities.

The actors, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, targeted internet-facing SharePoint servers.

The vulnerabilities, labeled CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, affect on-premises servers, meaning cloud-based servers are unaffected.

Microsoft has issued out-of-band security updates to address the vulnerabilities.

Bloomberg noted that the full extent of the damage is not clear at this time.

Lotem Finkelstein, Director of Threat Intelligence at Check Point Research, called the attacks "an urgent and active threat," noting that the vulnerabilities place thousands of organizations at risk.

Microsoft has released security updates to all supported versions of SharePoint, but those updates now need to be applied. The tech giant also shared guidance for customers using SharePoint Server.

Global attacks forced Microsoft to push emergency updates to address vulnerabilities. Two zero-day vulnerabilities are at the center of attacks against United States federal and state agencies, universities, and energy companies. An Asian telecommunications company was also attacked.

The Washington Post reported on the attacks, which were first discovered on July 18, 2025 by Eye Security. It has since been determined by cyber security company Check Point that the first signs of exploitation were on July 7, 2025.

Microsoft has since released emergency patches for the vulnerabilities, though they are limited to select versions of SharePoint.

The term "zero-day" attack refers to when a previously unknown vulnerability is targeted. Tens of thousands of servers are said to be at risk.

While the issue is serious, it differs from several previous vulnerabilities related to Microsoft. The attack only affects on-premises servers; cloud-based servers are unaffected.

The vulnerabilities, labeled CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, are discussed in detail in a Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management blog post.

That same post also discussed issues labeled CVE‑2025‑49704 and CVE‑2025‑49706, which were fixed with the July 8, 2025 updates from Microsoft. Those vulnerabilities can still, however, be exploited if an attacker uses the newly discovered exploits.

The out-of-band security updates are for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019 and Microsoft SharePoint Subscription Edition. A patch has not been released for Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016 as of the time of publication.

What is ToolShell?

ToolShell is the nickname for the attacks targeting the vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771. Those vulnerabilities are under "active exploitation," according to Check Point.

Lotem Finkelstein, Director of Threat Intelligence at Check Point Research, discussed the situation:

“We’re witnessing an urgent and active threat: a critical zero-day in SharePoint on-prem is being exploited in the wild, putting thousands of global organizations at risk. Our team has confirmed dozens of compromise attempts across government, telecom, and tech sectors since July 7. We strongly urge enterprises to update their security systems immediately — this campaign is both sophisticated and fast-moving.”

Check Point recommends organizations take the following steps to reduce risk:

• Ensure that your Anti-Malware Scan Interface is enabled.
• Rotate SharePoint Server ASP.NET machine keys.
• Deploy Harmony Endpoint to block post-exploit activities on the server.
• If applicable, limit access to the SharePoint Server from the Internet using Private Access tools.
• Update Quantum Gateway IPS Package 635254838 and ensure that the protection is set to Prevent and inspect the traffic of your SharePoint servers.

Microsoft recommends several steps for mitigation, including applying patches immediately where updates exist. The company also suggests enabling Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), rotating MachineKey twice, temporarily removing public exposure, hunting for indicators, and isolating suspected hosts.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is making it easier for users to preview videos from Stream (on SharePoint) within OneNote.
• The video streaming experience is exclusively rolling out to OneNote for Windows.
• You must be running version 2306 (Build 16701.10000) or later to access the feature.

Last month, Microsoft highlighted its plan to bring Stream's video streaming experience to OneNote. The company's objective is to let users preview videos from Stream (on SharePoint) in OneNote.

Previously, users had to navigate between multiple apps while trying to preview videos in OneNote which made the process tedious and daunting. Fortunately, Microsoft recently started rolling out the experience to Insiders.

"We have enhanced your video experience by enabling you to play Stream (on SharePoint) videos directly within OneNote. You no longer need to switch to another application. This seamless integration allows you to stay focused on your notes and maintain your productivity without any interruptions," said Daniel Beade, Microsoft's Product Manager on the OneNote team, in the blog post.

For those not conversant with Stream (on SharePoint), it's basically an "intelligent enterprise video experience" designed to help users record, upload, discover, share, and manage videos. 

The platform standouts because it integrates with apps across Microsoft 365, and now OneNote is joining the wave. As such, users will now be able to leverage its capabilities within OneNote.

Users will not be required to make any special configurations to access the experience in OneNote. You can copy and paste the URL of the Stream on SharePoint video you want onto OneNote.

The experience is currently rolling out to Insiders running version 2306 (Build 16701.10000) or later. And as usual, Microsoft rolls out these features in phases. Therefore, you might not be able to access the feature immediately. 

It's also worth noting that the feature is rolling out exclusively to OneNote on Windows users. As such, if you're running OneNote for Windows 10, this feature won't be available.

In other news, Microsoft recently added the option to use superscript and subscript in OneNote for iPad. The feature will allow users to seamlessly incorporate footnotes and type equations into their notes.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Lists is now optimized for iPads.
• The same update also enables support for conditional access related to Intune app protection policies.
• Microsoft Lists helps you track and organize information and work.

Microsoft Lists is a relatively new app designed to help you track and organize information and your workflow across a team. It's available as a standalone app and integrates with Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. The most recent update to Microsoft Lists optimizes the app for iPads. It also includes a new feature for conditional access related to Intune protection policy and several bug fixes.

Microsoft Lists was announced under a year ago, so some people may not have used it yet. You can use Microsoft Lists to track issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory, and more. Here are some of the features highlighted in its App Store listing:

• Track and manage lists wherever you're working
• See recent and favorite lists
• View lists even when offline
• Edit your lists and list items
• Capture and add photos with QR code support
• Create, share, and track lists with anyone
• Start quickly with ready-made templates
• Customize your views using sort, filter, and group by
• Dark mode and landscape orientation support
• Built-in enterprise-grade data security and compliance
• Intune device management support with MDM and MAM policies

You can use templates for lists or create them from scratch to help you organize your content. The Microsoft Lists app is free, but to use it, you need an Office 365 commercial license that includes SharePoint.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Lists is now available for iOS.
• The app helps you track information and organize work across a team.
• To use Microsoft Lists, you need an Office 365 commercial license that includes SharePoint.

Microsoft Lists is a relatively new service that helps you track and organize information across a team. You can use it to keep track of itinerary, assets, inventory, and several other types of content. Microsoft first announced Microsoft Lists at Build 2020, and now its app is available on iOS.

Microsoft Lists supports templates, allows you to create lists from scratch, and works across Microsoft services. You can use it on the web and directly within Microsoft Teams. Now, you can also use it on your iOS devices.

Below are some highlighted features of the app, as found on its App Store listing:

• Track and manage lists wherever you're working
• See recent and favorite lists
• View lists even when offline
• Edit your lists and list items
• Capture and add photos with QR code support
• Create, share, and track lists with anyone
• Start quickly with ready-made templates
• Customize your views using sort, filter, and group by
• Dark mode and landscape orientation support
• Built-in enterprise-grade data security and compliance
• Intune device management support with MDM and MAM policies

The Microsoft Lists app is free, but to use the service you need to have an Office 365 commercial license that includes SharePoint.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is increasing the file size limit for Microsoft 365.
• The increased limit applies to OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint.
• Microsoft optimized the storage process to be able to handle the file size increase.

With 4K videos, 8K videos, and 3-D files becoming more common, people's requirements for cloud file storage have evolved. Microsoft announced this week that it will increase the file size limit for Microsoft 365 to 250GB to meet the growing demand. The current limit is 100GB, so people will have much more room to work with after the increased limit rolls out.

The increased limit will come to all Microsoft 365 files, which includes OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint. The upload file size limit isn't just for business customers either. OneDrive for personal use also benefits from the bump up to 250GB.

If you've ever tried to upload a large file onto OneDrive or other Microsoft services, you might be concerned about uploading a 250GB file without running into any issues. Uploading files that large creates a longer window to run into issues, but Microsoft has optimized uploading to limit problems.

"We've achieved the 250 GB limit by optimizing storage for upload performance—each file is split into chunks and each piece is encrypted with a unique key," says Microsoft in its techcommunity post announcing the increased limit.

Microsoft also utilizes differential sync, which only syncs changes to files, rather than having to reupload an entirely new file each time you make any change.

Support for the new 250GB file size limit will roll out by the end of January.

What you need to know

• Microsoft detailed a ton of new features coming to OneDrive at its SharePoint conference this week.
• Among the updates is support for all file types with differential sync, expanding the feature beyond Office 2016 file types.
• Differential sync saves bandwidth by only syncing the parts of files that have changed, rather than re-uploading the entire file.

At its SharePoint conference this week, Microsoft took the wraps off of a load of features slated to hit OneDrive for business users soon. One of the biggest new features is the expansion of differential sync to cover all file types.

Differential sync is a feature that saves time and bandwidth by only syncing parts of files that have been changed, rather than re-uploading an entire file. Currently, the feature only works with Office 2016 file types. According to Microsoft, the feature will expand to include all file types "later this year" in both OneDrive and SharePoint.

"Today, we announced differential sync will sync only the parts of files that have changed, greatly reducing sync time and bandwidth utilization," Microsoft said in a blog post announcing the feature. "Currently OneDrive supports differential sync for modern Office file formats. Later this year, differential sync will support all files stored in Microsoft 365."

Other tidbits coming to OneDrive include the ability to view recommended files on the web, the option to save files for later, and support for 360-degree image previews. OneDrive is also getting new sharing enhancements, including the ability to request files from others, file-sharing integration in Microsoft Teams chats, and improvements to share "easy-to-read" links in the Outlook Web App.

Finally, Microsoft detailed some updates coming to the Outlook mobile app. The UI for browsing and sharing files from OneDrive through Outlook mobile is getting an overhaul, along with the addition of PDFs and scans to the "recent" view. Lastly, more options are coming to the PDF annotation experience.

For the complete rundown, you can view Microsoft's full blog post.

Affordable accessories that'll pair perfectly with your PC

Every one of these awesome PC accessories will enhance your everyday experience — and none cost more than $30.

KLIM Aim RGB gaming mouse ($30 at Amazon)

Whether you're a gamer or not, this is an absurdly good mouse for the price. It's ambidextrous, has a responsive sensor, a braided cable, tank-like build quality, and, yes, it has RGB lighting, though you can turn it off if that's not your thing.

AmazonBasics USB speakers ($16 at Amazon)

These neat little speakers may only pack 2.4W of total power, but don't let that fool you. For something so small you get a well-rounded sound and a stylish design. And they only cost $16.

Razer mouse bungee ($20 at Amazon)

Use a wired mouse? You need a mouse bungee to keep your cable tidy and free of snags. You get no drag on the cable, and this one has subtle styling, a rust-resistant spring and a weighted base, all for $20.

Microsoft has begun rolling out a new "Files Restore" feature for SharePoint and Microsoft Teams as part of Office 365. The new feature is aimed at preventing data loss by doing just as the name implies, allowing you to restore files that have been deleted. The real trump card is in its granularity, letting files be restored to any state from the past 30 days (via OnMSFT.

"Site owners will see a new "Restore this library" option within the library settings panel," Microsoft said in a blog post announcing the feature. "This can be used as a self-service to restore the files and folders in the library you suspect have been compromised by end-user deletion, file corruption, or malware infection – to any point in the past 30 days."

Going further, Files Restore will allow you to restore entire document libraries in the case of lots of files being deleted, corrupted, or infected by malware.

Microsoft is approaching Files Restore with a gradual rollout, first hitting SharePoint as part of Targeted Release for customers with Office 365. The goal, Microsoft says, is to have it in the hands of all Target Release customers by the end of April, with a full rollout for production Office 365 users by the end of May.

Cheap PC accessories we love

Take a gander at these awesome PC accessories, all of which will enhance your Windows experience.

Anker 4 port USB 3.0 hub ($10 at Amazon)

Whether on a desktop or laptop PC, you always need more ports to connect things to. This hub gives you an additional four USB 3.0 Type A ports.

Ikea Fixa Cable Management System ($11 at Amazon)

This IKEA cable management kit is your ticket to a clean setup. It's simple and functional.

NZXT Puck ($20 at Amazon)

This clever little accessory has powerful magnets on the rear to make it stick to any of the metal panels on your PC case or anything else. It's great for hanging accessories like headsets.

Microsoft today teased some intriguing new features headed for OneDrive and SharePoint users across Microsoft 365 later this year. Positioned as a healthy productivity boost, the AI-powered features include automated video and audio transcription, intelligent sharing, and more.

The highlight here is the new transcription feature, which will tap the same AI tech behind Microsoft Stream to automatically transcribe audio and video files in both OneDrive and SharePoint. Supporting 320 different file type, the generated transcription will be attached to any audio and video file you view. You can then make the video and transcription available to everyone across your organization via Microsoft Stream, which adds other AI capabilities like face detection and automatic captions.

Apart from transcription, Microsoft is also jazzing up its media searching capabilities. Assisted by AI, Microsoft's search will now be able to surface photos based on where they were taken, along with what objects and text appear in them. Video and audio files will also become more easily searchable thanks to the aforementioned automated transcriptions.

Lastly, a new files view in the works for OneDrive and Office.com will soon recommend more relevant files based on how you work, who you work with, and what content has been shared with you. Sharing is also getting a boost by recommending that you share relevant content with meeting attendees.

"For instance, if you just presented a PowerPoint presentation, you'll be prompted to share it with the other attendees once the meeting is over," Microsoft says. "In the OneDrive mobile app, we'll automatically prompt you to share photos taken during the same meeting, perhaps of a whiteboard where you brainstormed new ideas with your colleagues—all based on your Outlook calendar."

These are just some of the AI features Microsoft has in the works for Microsoft 365. The company also plans to reveal more at its Ignite conference, which kicks off on September 24 in Orlando, Florida.

Microsoft isn't showing any signs of slowing down with its efforts to bring mixed reality and AI to the masses. Following up on its reveal of two new mixed reality apps for the workplace at Build 2018, the company has announced mixed reality is headed to SharePoint as well. And that's not all: new AI content collaboration features are also coming to the service.

Speaking at its annual SharePoint Conference today, Microsoft showed off SharePoint spaces, a new way to bring mixed reality to the office. Spaces, Microsoft says, can be used to create new ways to collaborate on projects and create engaging ways to interact with data. From Microsoft:

• Recruiting and onboarding—Recruits or new employees can learn about a company in a compelling, 360-degree virtual welcome and orientation, including a 360-degree video message from leadership. They can navigate the campus or building with 3D maps, learn the organizational structure with an interactive organization chart, or explore rich information about coworkers and the organization's products.
• Learning—With mixed reality, learning comes to life by captivating your focus and attention. Gain broad perspective with a panoramic view of a topic and learning objectives. Then explore personalized, relevant, and dynamic content. Ignite your curiosity by discovering new insights, and dive deep into topics that matter to you. Learn not just by reading or watching, but by experiencing, with your senses engaged.
• Product development—Create an inspiring space for your team to spark innovation. Surround yourself with experts to look at data, content, and processes from every angle. Explore a prototype in 3D to identify new opportunities, attach annotations, and visualize improvements.

SharePoint spaces will allow anyone to build mixed reality experiences in minutes using templates with customizable surroundings, sounds, lighting, and more. The experiences will also work with any browser, mobile browser, or headset, and they'll be available for all Office 365 commercial plans. Customers and partners will soon be able to apply to take part in a limited SharePoint spaces preview.

​

Microsoft also peppered in some new AI experiences set to roll out across SharePoint. A new "Find" tab in the SharePoint mobile app will use AI to recommend sites, files, news, and people that are relevant to you. "You might find what you need without having to search at all. And when you perform a search, the results are refined as you type, returning personalized results based on your role, your work, and the people you work with," Microsoft says.

A similar recommendation section is also coming to Office.com. The section will show you files that Microsoft has identified "most likely to need your attention." A "Discover" section will clue you in to files that your colleagues are working on and files available to you. AI is also being used to recognize objects in photos, determine where they were taken, and pull text from them. You'll be able to use this feature to easily search photos like you can documents.

Lastly, Microsoft Flow has been enhanced to "streamline processes that integrate cognitive services." Those include geolocation, image recognition, tect extraction, and machine translation.

Office 365 ATP is meant to help organizations stay secure by detecting and addressing new and unknown threats. Initially launched in 2015, Office 365 launched to protect "against unknown malware and viruses, real-time, time-of-click protection against malicious URLs, and rich reporting and URL trace capabilities," Microsoft says (via OnMSFT). Now that same protection is being extended to SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

Advanced Threat Protection in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams will now surface quality indicators, helping to identify malicious content. A part of this process includes correlating file activity signals from each service with Microsoft Security Intelligence Graph threat feeds.

Office 365 ATP is included for Office 365 Enterprise E5, Education A5, and several Exchange and Office 365 subscription plans. IT administrators can learn more about configuring ATP at Microsoft.

The way modern businesspeople share information with clients and partners is forever changing. However, one thing that continues to be challenging is sending large files through email. Quite often, revisions to files must be made. By emailing attachments back and forth, you could end up with numerous versions that cause confusion. A more effective means of sharing files is through a common place, one that allows for secure collaboration.

If your company uses Microsoft Office 365, you and your intended file recipients will benefit from using either OneDrive for Business or SharePoint for sharing. They both provide the convenience of easy access to files and folders while giving your contacts as much or as little accessibility as you want. Here's how to use each service to share files.

• SharePoint Online
• OneDrive for Business

How to use SharePoint Online to share files

SharePoint Online is a cloud-based solution that allows colleagues to share files and documents through websites. The service is available when a business subscribes to either the SharePoint Online standalone service or to an Office 365 plan. Sharing files with external recipients using SharePoint online is much less cumbersome than it is through a corporate-managed SharePoint environment. Additionally, SharePoint Online can be accessed from virtually anywhere usingOffice 365, so you aren't hindered by limited access to a single network or device. Two methods for sharing are through a SharePoint site for collaborative access, or you can send a document through an anonymous guest link.

Sharing a SharePoint site

In order to share a SharePoint site with an intended recipient, you have to either be granted full permission over control of the site or you need to be the "site owner." What you're doing is sending an invite that allows people to log in and access the site. In order to do this, they must log in using their SharePoint account at work, or with a Microsoft account. You can choose to share the entire site with the individual or share a specific document. Either way, only one person can use the invitation to access the shared item.

How to share a site or document with an authorized user

1. Log into Office 365.
2. Select the app launcher icon at the top left corner of the page.
3. Select the SharePoint icon.
4. Access the site to be shared.
5. Select Share located near the top right corner.
6. In the Share entry field, input the email addresses for the people you want to invite.
7. Select Share.
8. Enter in a message to accompany the invite. (This could be special instructions or requests.)
9. The invitation is then automatically sent.

You'll have additional options, such as preventing external sharing, to help keep your files as secure as possible. People you've invited can be given various types of access, such as the options to edit files and upload content, making for a collaborative environment.

Sending an anonymous link

In some instances, if you require feedback from an unspecified group, for example, you may want to consider granting access through an anonymous guest link. People you invite may not have an Office 365 subscription or may be on a team for which participation is not mandatory. These invite links only give visitors access to documents in the appropriate Office Online product, so cannot view them in a desktop version.

How to create and share a link

1. Ensure that you are logged into Office 365.
2. Click on the app launcher icon at the top right.
3. Click on the SharePoint icon.
4. Locate the document or file in question and click on its More options icon.
5. Select Share.
6. Select Get a link.
7. Choose the level of permissions: Restricted, View or Edit.
8. Copy the generated invite link to be shared.

At any time, the anonymous guest link can be disabled. And you should be wary of the type of access you grant because the link can potentially be shared beyond your perceived scope. Also keep in mind that this link could also be seen by other site members who can, in turn, use the link, as well.

How to use OneDrive for Business to share files

With OneDrive for Business, you can share files, as well as folders, instead of an entire site, with external recipients. As with SharePoint, you can modify permissions to specify who can view and edit files. Keep in mind that your company or organization must have external sharing enabled in the OneDrive for Business settings.

How to create a share link

1. Log into OneDrive.com with your work account.
2. Access the file that you would like to share.
3. Select Get link from the ribbon near the top of the page.
4. By default, OneDrive will indicate the permissions to be given: "Anyone with this link can edit this item." Click on this to change permissions to one of the following options:
   • Anyone with this link
   • Only people in your organization
   • Only specific people
5. Check or uncheck Allow editing to choose to protect your document from being modified, copied or downloaded by invitees.
6. Select Get link to populate a link.
7. Select Copy to add the link to your clipboard.

This link can easily be disabled by selecting the same file in OneDrive for Business, then clicking the information icon and selecting Stop sharing.

How to create an invite to share a file or folder

1. Select the file or folder and choose Share.
2. Enter the email address of the external user. (OneDrive for Business will warn you that the email address is outside of your organization.)
3. Include optional text in the message field.
4. Select or deselect Allow editing, based on your preferences.
5. Click OK to send.

The recipient will get access to the document in the online version of the appropriate Office product (Word Online, for example).

The user would also have to have a Microsoft account, or a free Microsoft account tied to their email account. The top right of the page will indicate to the invitee that they have been designated as a "guest contributor." In OneDrive, you can select the information icon to view activity about the shared folder or file, meaning it could allow you to see that the guest contributor has edited the file. Under information, you can choose additional options, such as adding more people to share with or stop sharing altogether.

If you find that you are sharing multiple files with the same individual, it would be easier to choose to share a folder instead. You can, for example, create a folder with the name of the recipient. You can then share the folder and simply drop new or updated files into the folder when you need to. This saves you from having to choose the share option constantly.

Of course, all of these methods depend on the fact that your company or organization must allow external sharing within these Microsoft services.

Which methods do you use to share files? Let us know in the comments.

You can also visit our Office 101 help hub for more related articles.

• Microsoft Office 101: Help, how-tos and tutorials

The official SharePoint app for Windows 10 Mobile has exited its preview and is now available as a full release on the Windows Store. The app initially hit the store as a public preview in late September, allowing some to try the app out early. Microsoft recently shared on Twitter that the app has officially shed its preview tag, however, and is ready for prime time.

SharePoint for Windows 10 Mobile allows business users to easily access their intranet on the go to quickly view and share team files, sites and more. Here's a quick rundown of everything the full SharePoint app can do:

• Sign in to your SharePoint Online sites. You can add multiple accounts, and easily switch between them.
• Quickly find your sites. Check out the Sites tab, to see the sites you frequently visit and the sites you follow. Tap on a team site to dive into it. See site activity, navigate using the familiar quick launch navigation, easily follow or share the site, and work with your lists.
• Check out recent and popular files. In a team site, get to your recent or popular files quickly to view or share them, and have full access to your document libraries using the new integration with the OneDrive app. Edit your files easily using Office Mobile apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
• Use the Links tab to find promoted links for your organization. Curated by your SharePoint admin for all employees, these links get you to the organizational resources and sites that you care about.
• Search. Enterprise Search is available throughout the app and results are organized into sites, files and people.
• Find and browse for people you work with. Tap on a user to get to their contact card and to see who they work with and what they are working on.

It's important to note that the app does require a business to have an active Office 365 subscription that includes SharePoint online. If your company meets those requirements, you should be able to check out SharePoint for Windows 10 Mobile now by giving it a download from the Windows Store. Also be sure let us know what you think in the comments!

Download SharePoint from the Windows Store

Update: Some users are seeing a "Coming soon" message when they launch the SharePoint app. It's possible that the real version is still rolling out to all markets.

Microsoft has officially launched the public preview version of its SharePoint app for Windows 10 Mobile. The app allows businesses that have Office 365 subscriptions to share news, sites, documents and more.

Microsoft stated in a blog post:

Here's a list of the features in the SharePoint Windows 10 Mobile app:

• Navigate from Sites to team sites you follow or frequently visit.
• Navigate from Links to important sites configured by your organization.
• Catch up on what's happened with the Activity view, which shows recent file activity in your team site.
• Open your document libraries with the OneDrive app and then edit your files using Office mobile apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
• Learn more about people you work with and discover what they are working on.
• Perform an enterprise-wide search to find sites, files and people throughout your organization.

Since this is a preview version, there are likely to be some issues with the app. Still, if you're interested, you can go ahead and download SharePoint Preview from the Windows Store now.

Download SharePoint Preview from the Windows Store

Microsoft plans to roll out a new SharePoint app for iOS, Android, and Windows soon, as well as a new OneDrive UWP app for Windows 10. The company has also revealed plans to improve the level of integration between both platforms with notable improvements planned for the year like the ability to copy from OneDrive to SharePoint and more.

Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet published a handful new features that are on the way to both OneDrive and SharePoint. Unfortunately, it wasn't confirmed as to whether or not the new OneDrive app will include support for placeholder files.

We eagerly await the arrival of the new versions and will take a gander once they're live in respective stores, so be sure to stay tuned for more details.

GimmalPoint (www.gimmalpoint.com) for Windows 8 and Windows Phone enables consumers to connect to SharePoint and view documents, sites, lists, libraries and more in multiple views. It’s billed as the most featured-rich solution available on Microsoft’s app stores and is developed by Liquid Daffodil.

We've covered these apps in the past, passing through beta testing and going gold. Today, we’re looking at a significant update. But not only do we have a new release, but there is a special offer exclusively available for Windows Phone Central readers.

Without further ado, here’s the full list of changes in the latest versions of GimmalPoint:

• Yammer integration, which includes reading and updating timelines for all networks, as well as sharing documents, lists and more from the apps
• Offline storage and management for Windows Store, perfect for when connectivity is sketchy
• Enhanced ADFS/Federation support
• Connections now synchronise across all devices and platforms (including auto-sensing credential entry)

As touched on above, not only has Liquid Daffodil pushed through the above features, but Gimmal is also running a special promotion for the Windows Phone Central community. What this promotion will bag you is not only both apps for free, but also the optional in-app purchase for management/editing functionality.

This special deal will save you around $13 in total, should you download both the Windows and Windows Phone apps. That's not a bad deal. So, how does one take advantage of this promotion?

It’s super simple to grab both apps for free. Download the GimmalPoint trials from the app stores (which expires in 15 days) and enter the promotion code WPCENTRAL (see above for a screenshot). That’s it! You now have GimmalPoint along with future versions and updates.

You can download GimmalPoint from the Windows Phone and Windows stores. Let us know how you get on with the promotion code.

Liquid Daffodil is seeking testers for GimmalPoint on the Windows Store. The app (owned by GimmalPoint - https://www.gimmal.com/) enables SharePoint users to connect and view sites, documents, lists, libraries and more in multiple views. Billed as the "most full-featured" SharePoint solution available on Microsoft's desktop store, Liquid Daffodil is running into some problems with a handful of reports from users who can't seem to connect. 

Since the team is unable to reproduce said issues, they're looking out to the community to get some testers on-board.

So what's the incentive for doing so? Glad you asked. Liquid Daffodil will be rewarding those who help out the team in correcting issues (that some are experiencing with GimmalPoint) by handing out Ultimate Liquid Subscriptions (worth $15.99), which will unlock all LD software on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 for free (including future apps released). All that's required is SharePoint.

The issue being some users can't connect to specific SharePoint environments. Here's how you can get involved:

1. Download GimmalPoint from the Windows Store (link below)
2. Fire an email over to support@liquiddaffodil.com
3. Connect to your SharePoint environments, and if you can’t connect, work with the team to help test and resolve their connection issues

As well as helping a resident Microsoft platform developer out, you'll also be able to test out GimmalPoint if you haven't already done so. Regardless as to whether or not you utilise SharePoint 2010 or 2013, on-premise or in the cloud, GimmalPoint will synchronise your data on Windows 8 devices, including touch-enabled machines and tablets. It's pretty neat.

Best of all, you get to take advantage of all the apps Liquid Daffodil has published on both the Windows 8 and Windows Phone stores with the subscription. You can download GimmalPoint from the Windows Store for free, but be sure to get in touch with the team to get started with helping out.

Today the SharePoint Team at Microsoft announced that a standalone SkyDrive Pro client is available to download for Windows machines. The Pro edition of SkyDrive allows users to easily save, sync, share, and collaborate on documents in SharePoint. It is worth noting that the new client, is only compatible with SharePoint 2013 servers and Office 365.

SkyDrive Pro was pre-bundled (although not functional for all users until now) with Office 365 Pro Plus, Office 365 Small Business Premium, and Office Professional Plus 2013. If you have any of the aforementioned Office suites installed on your PC, there is no need to download SkyDrive Pro separately.

To use SkyDrive Pro on your Windows machine, first install the client then navigate to either your SkyDrive Pro Library, SharePoint 2013 software, or Office 365 site document library and select the “SYNC” button to begin the process.

While consumers might not be excited, enterprise users are now able to rejoice in a client that can sync files and take advantage of SharePoint features like collaboration, metadata, workflow, and compliance.

Microsoft is competing against other corporate giants for a piece of the cloud market in both the enterprise and consumer spaces. As many businesses choose to manage their company email via Google Apps while still using full Microsoft Office suites, the company needs to convey the power and ease of integration for using Office 365 with SkyDrive.

SkyDrive Pro’s ability to plug into corporate SharePoint servers and Office 365 allows enterprise users to centralize their data and gives administrators tighter control over what users are uploading to the cloud.

If you aren’t a business user and haven’t yet checked out Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud Service then I would give it a go. Heavy Microsoft users can easily sync all files across their Windows machines including the Surface RT, while still being able to access and view files on their Xbox 360 and Windows Phone.

Do you use SkyDrive to sync your files to the cloud or do you use a competitor’s service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) to get the job done?

If you are looking to download the SkyDrive Pro client, click here!

Source: Microsoft SharePoint Blog

Microsoft has released an official SharePoint app for Windows Phone, enabling users to stay connected with colleagues using service backend functionality and features. Newsfeeds from SharePoint sites are displayed, which can be added to, with the ability to follow people, access documents, tags and more.

With the built-in Office suite, Windows Phone has the advantage of the competing mobile platforms when it comes to document processing. Microsoft is busy adding more products to the Windows Phone Store, with Lync also readily available.

Some highlighted Newsfeed features of the SharePoint app:

• Create new status posts
• Add comments to ongoing discussions
• Read and “like” your colleagues’ posts
• @mention a colleague directly
• Use #hashtags
• Upload pictures
• Discover people profiles
• Work with followed documents

You can download SharePoint from the Windows Phone Store for free. Note that it's a preview so be sure to leave feedback where possible to improve usability, and reviews already published on the app listing reveal that users are experiencing issues with connectivity. via: Plaffo

On June 14th, rumors were circulating that Microsoft was poised to buy Yammer, a social-network and messaging service for enterprise, for at least $1 billion dollars. Speculation cooled down a bit as Microsoft intended to focus on the Surface and Windows Phone 8 announcements but a new week is upon us and so the deal is now official.

Microsoft has now purchased Yammer (www.yammer.com) for a massive $1.2 billion in cash and it will be folded into the Microsoft Office Division, led by division President Kurt DelBene. The team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks to maintain continuity, at least for the near future.

A statement from Microsoft on the acquisition states

Yammer is only four years old but has nearly 5 million users including employees at 85 percent of the Fortune 500, making it an interesting and strategic purchase. So why the acquisition even though Microsoft has Lync and Sharepoint already? Mary Jo Foley (ZDNet) ruminates that Microsoft "...needed a cooler brand and wanted the cross-platform support" which sounds about right to us.

Here's to hopefully seeing Yammer built into Windows Phone 8.

Full press release after the break...

Microsoft to Acquire YammerJune 25, 2012Microsoft extends cloud services with best-in-class enterprise social networking.

REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — June 25, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. and Yammer Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Yammer, a leading provider of enterprise social networks, for $1.2 billion in cash. Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division, led by division President Kurt DelBene, and the team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks.

“The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”

Launched in 2008, Yammer now has more than 5 million corporate users, including employees at 85 percent of the Fortune 500. The service allows employees to join a secure, private social network for free and then makes it easy for companies to convert a grassroots movement into companywide strategic initiative.

Yammer will continue to develop its standalone service and maintain its commitment to simplicity, innovation and cross-platform experiences. Moving forward, Microsoft plans to accelerate Yammer’s adoption alongside complementary offerings from Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.

“When we started Yammer four years ago, we set out to do something big,” Sacks said. “We had a vision for how social networking could change the way we work. Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we’ll need to scale and innovate.”

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

About Yammer

Yammer (www.yammer.com) is a leading provider of enterprise social networks with over 5 million verified corporate users including employees of more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500. The basic version of Yammer is free, and customers can pay to upgrade their network to receive advanced administrative and security controls, integrations with enterprise applications, priority customer service and a designated customer success manager.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at https://www.windowscentral.com/e?link=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Fdeeplink%3Fid%3DkXQk6%252AivFEQ%26mid%3D24542%26u1%3DUUwpUdUnU11683%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.microsoft.com%252Fnews.&token=-stg9eew Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://www.windowscentral.com/e?link=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Fdeeplink%3Fid%3DkXQk6%252AivFEQ%26mid%3D24542%26u1%3DUUwpUdUnU11683%26murl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.microsoft.com%252Fnews%252Fcontactpr.mspx.&token=fX-upNAS

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are any predictions, projections or other statements about future events. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements because of a variety of risks and uncertainties about our business, which we describe in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement.

Yammer, the Facebook for enterprises, has announced that they're looking to launch an official app for Windows Phone 7. Built from the ground up, this soon-to-be freely available app will bring social interaction to the enterprise level for employees who use WP7. It is also stated that the app will be Mango compatible.

Some highlighted features:

• Threaded Conversations - Post, reply and like messages. Easily follow conversations with replies displayed underneath the original message.
• Multi-Feed Access - Quickly navigate between My Feed, Group Feeds and Company Feed to find relevant conversations.
• Multi-Network Access - Switch between various internal and external networks.
• Member Directory and Profiles - Find updates, links and files posted by a specific colleague in addition to contact information.
• Private Messages - Communicate privately with one or more colleagues. 
• Live Tile Integration - Receive real-time notifications from Yammer about new conversations and messages on your Windows Phone Start screen, all without opening the application.

Paul Bryan, senior director of product management in Microsoft's Windows Phone Division, mentions Yammer as a cutting-edge business app:

David Sacks, founder and CEO, Yammer had this to say about WP7:

As well as the WP7 news, Yammer has also announced a new version of its integration with Microsoft SharePoint. Yammer SharePoint 3.0 Web Part provides a real-time social layer to the SharePoint platform, making it more social, mobile and engaging for enterprise employees.

Source: Marketwire, via: WPSauce

Microsoft is one of the most diverse technology companies in the world. Search, Gaming, enterprise class Mail and Storage solutions, and of course Mobile; Microsoft is among the world leaders in all of these areas.

Microsoft Office is one of the most popular software suites ever. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have been used by millions of people throughout the world. As such a popular set of tools, the Office products are also the de facto standard for document portability. Because of the sheer popularity of Office, even competing products are forced to offer as much support for Office documents as possible.

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s attempt to put their best foot forward in the mobile market. But how does the Office Hub live up to the high standards that Microsoft has set for itself? Read the review for my opinion.

Features

The Office Hub in Windows Phone 7 offers access to Word and OneNote documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Chances are that of those four file types, the one that most people are the least familiar with is OneNote. Not coincidentally, OneNote is the document type that Microsoft has put at the forefront of the Office Hub, taking up the entire first page of the panoramic application. By comparison, page two is split between the three other document types. The primary purpose of OneNote is, as the name suggests, note taking. Microsoft has made the (logical) assumption that the primary reason that someone would want to use Office on their smart-phone would be to create short lists or notes. Incidentally, OneNote documents are the only Office document type that you can “pin to start”. OneNote documents support embedded images and sound, as well as basic text formatting such as numbered and bulleted lists.

I could spend a lot of time talking about what Office does or does not do, and the chances are that nobody would read or care. The bottom line is this: Microsoft’s goal with the Office Hub (and Windows Phone 7 in general) was to target the most common things that people do with their phones, and make it a more streamlined process. The intent isn’t to do major re-writes in Word and Excel on your phone, but to give you the ability to quickly and easily view documents, and to make minor edits or comments. Features like Find and Outline View allow you to easily find what you’re looking for in all of the document types. Excel also allows you to sort and filter your columns; these features are core to the way that people use Excel on a daily basis. Editing functionality like adding comments to a document are also uses that Microsoft recognizes as being key functionality, as well as simple text formatting, re-ordering PowerPoint slides and changing the formula on a cell in Excel.

One key concept that fits a mobile platform like Windows Phone 7 perfectly is Microsoft’s vision of three screens and a cloud. Microsoft’s web based services like SkyDrive and SharePoint both fit different niches in the Office Hub. SkyDrive, which is part of Microsoft’s Live services, allows you to synchronize your OneNote documents to the cloud; giving you quick and easy access from your smart-phone or your desktop with the OneNote application or in your web browser at office.live.com. SharePoint, which is one of Microsoft’s business offerings, goes a bit further. Not only can you view or edit documents stored on your company’s SharePoint server; but if the document that you are using is modified by another user, SharePoint can notify you that there is a newer version of your document, preventing loss of data by the file becoming overwritten.

Usability

Microsoft has said numerous times that their primary goal for Windows Phone 7 was to make the user experience the priority. If they felt like they couldn’t deliver a feature without sacrificing usability, it didn’t make it into the product. Cut & Paste is Exhibit A for this argument. Does Microsoft want to include every feature possible in the Office Hub? Of course they do, but the user experience is their priority.

How does this affect you? That depends on your needs. If you primarily need to be able to view and comment on Office documents from your smart-phone, then features like pinch to zoom and swiping through PowerPoint slides will probably be perfect for you. If you’re expecting the full desktop Office experience, you need to lower your standards.

Conclusion

Here’s the deal. Windows Phone 7 is still a VERY early product. Microsoft’s mantra to this point has been usability over features. As of right now the Office Hub is fairly crippled for a lot of people simply because there is no capability to Cut & Paste; but we know this functionality is already coming in January.

In my opinion, Microsoft’s focus on getting the usability right has made the Office Hub (and Windows Phone 7 in general) very successful. Empowering people to be more efficient in the most common tasks is a remarkably sensible approach for the software giant, and it makes the Office Hub a winner.

Watching the growth of Windows Phone 7 over this past year has been an exercise in patience. Microsoft’s strategy of showing the customers what they were working on months ahead of an actual release is very different that what one would expect from a company like Apple, where they announce a product only after it was already in production. The advantage of Microsoft’s strategy is that they have received feedback from both developers and consumers on the different features and functionality that will be included or (in some cases) left out. I really think Windows Phone 7 will be a better product because of this strategy.

Hit the break for all of my thoughts on Windows Phone 7.

There are a couple of areas that I feel like Microsoft has hit the nail on the head with Windows Phone 7. Microsoft’s strengths as a company lie in their Enterprise offerings and their services (either owned or partnered). Much like Google, a mobile platform is more of a way to get their primary cash cow products into the hands of more consumers. The fact that Microsoft is able to seamlessly integrate Exchange, SharePoint, Office, Bing, Zune, Xbox Live, Facebook and others directly into the platform give it a leg up over any of their competitors. For years I’ve wished that Microsoft would integrate more of their products Windows Mobile, and now they are finally making it happen.

The other strength that Microsoft has finally taken advantage of is their developer ecosystem. Microsoft’s developer tools have been among the best in the business for a long time, and many developers are already comfortable using their tools. In creating an environment that is conducive to quickly and efficiently rolling out high quality applications, Microsoft has positioned Windows Phone 7 to be a strong contender in the “apps” arena; which can only be good for their end users.

One of the areas that has received a substantial amount of attention in Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s innovative Metro UI. Color me impressed with the focus on smooth transitions and navigation. Functional design is such a difficult goal to achieve, the balance that is required to be effective is tough to perfect. Microsoft’s aggressive approach in creating a mobile UI that has never been seen before could very well be the biggest innovation that Windows Phone 7 brings to the table. I’m not entirely sold on the Start Screen yet, I really would like to be able to add a background image or maybe have multiple Start Screens; but that may be nitpicking. Metro is going to be one of those things that I’ll have to use for a couple of weeks before I really form an opinion. My biggest concern is that some functions will require five or ten different swipes and taps to dig down to the appropriate level, if that concern proves wrong, Windows Phone 7 could be a huge success.

From a consumer’s perspective, there are three things that I like to do with my phone. The first is consuming information from various sources. Whether I’m reading email, viewing my Twitter feed, using Facebook, or just reading the news; I’m spending more time using my device to read than I am to actually input anything. Having a platform like Windows Phone 7 that seamlessly handles multiple Exchange accounts and automatically integrates with my Facebook contacts is something that I really look forward to.

The second thing that I’m looking forward to with Windows Phone 7 is the media functionality that will be offered through Zune. I’ve used my Windows Mobile device as my primary media player for some time, but it’s never really been natural. I’ve used several different applications for playing back different types of media, mostly because I’ve never found a single application that met all of my needs. The fact that very few Windows Mobile devices had 3.5mm audio jacks just made it that much harder to sell out to Windows Mobile as my only device. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has (it seems) remedied both issues. With the chassis specifications that they have given, we know that every device will have a headphone jack. With Zune being one of the key applications built in, we can assume that at minimum we will be in better shape from a software standpoint over Windows Mobile.

Last but not least is Xbox Live. From a gaming perspective, Microsoft is noticably absent in the portable gaming sector. Between the major gaming platforms, XBox is the only one that doesn't have a portable platform. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that XBox Live on Windows Phone 7 will compete directly against the PSP and Nintendo DS it will be the closest thing Microsoft has, and I wouldn't be surprised if the "always connected" nature of Windows Phones makes it a very appealing choice. I’ve played some entertaining games on Windows Mobile, many of which have occupied hours of my life (Meon anyone?). But nothing on Windows Mobile compares with what we have seen on Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live. Some of this goes back to the minimum hardware specifications for Windows Phone 7, and some of it has to do with the developer tools that Microsoft has built; the bottom line is that Microsoft is making every effort to capitalize on the things that they do best.

Like everyone else, I still have questions about Windows Phone 7. I would really like to see their implementation of copy and paste. I would like to have multitasking enabled, though I don’t think that is as much of a deal breaker as some say. Every indication to this point is that the added value will outweigh any features that are missing at launch, though I would definitely like to see Microsoft follow through on its promise of regular updates.

So far, I think Microsoft has made great strides in its effort to get back to relevancy in the Mobile space. Now if they could just get that tablet thing to work out…

Here's a video of Microsoft demoing the latest build of Windows Phone 7 at the TechEd conference currently going on.

Cloud computing and enterprise was the focus of this session with Sharepoint, Office, Excel and Outlook being featured in this presentation. Overall, the UI is looking real smooth with some nice animations and transitions--in fact, it looks zippier than earlier demonstrations. While full document editing is not really plausible on a smartphone, they stress the importance and ease of document-commenting in WP7 and show off how that works. They do this by opening an email, then modifying an Excel document via Sharepoint.

Plus, that whole spell-correction/word prediction thing has this sorry-speller sold.

Check out the whole demo after the break, it's worth the few minutes.

[Thanks, wreiad, for the video & tip!]

It’s been a good week for those had concerns about how much effort Microsoft was going to put into their "legacy" Windows Mobile OS. First we get an update to Bing, which includes a fairly significant feature upgrade in voice assisted navigation. Today, Microsoft announced Office Mobile 2010 in conjunction with the release of the desktop and web versions of their flagship product.

According to the press release, users of Windows Mobile 6.5 that have a previous version of Office Mobile will be able to upgrade for free through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Office Mobile 2010 adds support for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as well as updated versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

If you haven’t already, head over to the Marketplace for your free copy. Let us know what you think!

Microsoft has made the Office 2010 beta available for public consumption, which means you and I can download it for your desktop as well as your phone. The mobile version is available in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and you can get the desktop version here. The beta includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint Workspace and OneNote. Exchange 2010 will require your Exchange provider to push it out once it's released.

Do note that the beta will expire on April 5, 2010, so don't be expecting to use this forever. We'll be tinkering with Office 2010 over the next few days. Share your thoughts in the comments, and let us know what you would like to see.