Author: Paul Thurrott

Because it’s the most wonderful time of a less than wonderful year, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s 2020 holiday commercial, Salesforce wastes $27.7 billion, Microsoft’s controversy of the week, 1100 new Teams features, yet another way to update Windows 10, and so much more.

Because it’s Friday the 13th, this edition of Short Takes looks at the Xbox Series X|S launch, the .NET 5.0 launch, a new Microsoft employee who created Python, a former Microsoft employee who stole $10 million from the company, and so much more.

Because it’s the most wonderful time of the quarter, this edition of Short Takes looks more closely at Microsoft’s latest blockbuster quarterly earnings report, in which the firm posted a net income of $13.9 billion on revenues of $37.2 billion.

Because we can only overcome this sense of dread with humor, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s new work-from-home deadline, Office PWAs trigger a new Microsoft drama, a new version of Windows 10, a release of Microsoft Edge on Linux, and so much more.

Because it’s the Ides of October, this edition of Short Takes looks at mounting antitrust scrutiny of Big Tech, a Satya Nadella call for a “referendum on capitalism,” some antitrust nostalgia from Bill Gates, a Microsoft AI for auto-captioning images, and much more.

Because it’s the end of the world as we know and I feel fine, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s new flexible work-from-home edict, multiple Microsoft 365 outages, a weird Microsoft diversity issue, Microsoft’s app store guidelines, and so much more.

Because this is no time for cowardice, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s TikTok acquisition possibly being foiled by China, the clarity of the first wave of Surface Duo reviews, another win for Microsoft in the battle over JEDI, and so much more.

Because it’s still August, what do you mean it’s still August, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft and Oracle’s epic battle for TikTok, the latest Windows 10 version upgrade, a Windows 95 anniversary, a weird problem with Microsoft Teams for Android, and so much more.

Because it’s the summer of our discontent, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft blurring the lines between Windows 10 versions, the slow death of Internet Explorer, Panos is pumped about something else, Flight Simulator takes off to cheers and laughs, and so much more.

Because tik tok, tik tok, what do you do, Microsoft, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s bizarre pursuit of social networking, Ignite 2020 being split asunder, a massive reorg in the Windows group, a virtual Microsoft appearance in a virtual Samsung product launch, and so much more.

Because the pandemic is clearly the best thing that’s ever happened to Microsoft, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s blockbuster quarterly and annual earnings announcement.

Because the end is listless, this edition of Short Takes looks at a temporary Outlook problem that broke the Internet, Google’s Microsoft envy, a well-intentioned but ill-conceived plan to fix Edge and Chrome memory usage, Microsoft layoffs, and so much more.

Because we’re getting a little loopy during the pandemic, this edition of Short Takes looks at the push to $2 trillion in market cap, how Peggy Johnson is just like Stephen Elop, a metric ton of new Teams features, LinkedIn stealing your data, and so much more.

Because the earth actually rotates around Cupertino now, this edition of Short Takes looks at Microsoft’s blockbuster retail announcement, a Senate initiative to curtail a huge HoloLens sales, a weird Skype consolidation, an expansion of Teams’ capabilities to individuals, the death of Mixer, and so much more.

Because Microsoft will get it right one day, this edition of Short Takes looks at problems with Windows 10 version 2004, future Windows 10 20H2 and 21H1 releases, changes to the Insider program, a SASsy partnership for Microsoft, Apple antitrust issues, and so much more.