More Users Down on Microsoft Longhorn

By Ian Bell May 2, 2005

“Arvind Mishra gave a high-level overview of some new features in the OS. First, he shows off a new way of launching Solitaire… yeah, it looked just as great as it did in Windows 3.1. Arvind continues with a joke about the dog in Windows Search no longer being there – and I couldn’t hear a single laugh coming from the audience. Why? Because it wasn’t funny when the pooch was foisted upon us in XP. Then, Arvind runs through the new Desktop search feature… which is nothing new to me, as I’ve been happy for months with something already far more elegant. In the “new” Explorer, the thumbnail options are just as ghastly as they have been in previous versions of Windows (what if I don’t want to have all my icons enlarged at the same time?). Oh, and I believe the thumbnail image representing folders (or their new paradigm, stacks) really needs to be redone. But I feel that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “

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Paul Thurott dissapointed with Longhorn too

Longhorn Unlikely to Boost PC industry

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Computing

How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams

Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.

Computing

A dangerous new jailbreak for AI chatbots was just discovered

the side of a Microsoft building

Microsoft has released more details about a troubling new generative AI jailbreak technique it has discovered, called "Skeleton Key." Using this prompt injection method, malicious users can effectively bypass a chatbot's safety guardrails, the security features that keeps ChatGPT from going full Taye.

Skeleton Key is an example of a prompt injection or prompt engineering attack. It's a multi-turn strategy designed to essentially convince an AI model to ignore its ingrained safety guardrails, "[causing] the system to violate its operators’ policies, make decisions unduly influenced by a user, or execute malicious instructions," Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, wrote in the announcement.