Short Takes Daily: What's going on in the world of Microsoft for Tuesday, June 30, 2015

As you can imagine, today's big news was in the one -- no, wait, TWO new Windows 10 builds Microsoft released to the Fast ring in the past 24 hours. Also: we have how-tos for getting the most out of Cortana or Microsoft Band, the details on archiving non-Microsoft info in Office 365, and a eulogy for Office 365's People view.

FRESH ON OUR SITES ...

Two Builds in Two Days as Microsoft releases Windows 10 Build 10159 — You can not miss the fact there is a new Lock Screen layout and the new Windows 10 wallpaper they showed off last week is now in this build.

Windows 10 Build 10158 – The Upgrade Experience — A lengthy download period, some troubleshooting, a total reinstall of build 10074 ... Richard Hay had to jump through a lot of hoops to get his hands on the latest iteration of Windows 10. 

Is Windows 10 Build 10158 Good Enough? — Windows 10 is getting close and Microsoft is closing the loops, filling the holes, and snipping away the crust. Boes this new Build, particularly the attention to the Surface tablets, make users feel comfortable enough to go all-in with Windows 10 now?

Gallery: Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10158 — You will see the big news on this build is the first desktop release with full Microsoft Edge browsing. As you know Microsoft Edge is the new web browsing platform that is part of Windows 10 - it was formally known as Project Spartan. The other interesting note about this build - no known issues.

How To: Install the Windows Insider Hub — The Windows Insider Hub is no longer be a default app installed with newer Windows 10 Builds. But the Hub is still available — it just has to be installed separately and manually. Here's how to do that. 

How To: Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro — What if you want to move from the Home version to the Pro version? Rod Trent walks you through the steps. 

Gallery: Windows 10 Phone Companion App — For the first time we can now use Microsoft's new Phone Companion app in Windows 10 Build 10158. Here's what you can expect when you load the app. 

How To: Enabling Cortana in Windows 10 — Cortana is not turned on by default in Windows 10, so you'll need to enable the functionality. Here's how. 

How To: Adjust Cortana's Settings in Windows 10 —  Cortana is the personal assistant for your Windows devices, giving you the ability to organize your life and locate information that is unique to you. Cortana is not turned on by default. Once you've enabled Cortana, you may want to adjust how she works. Here's how.

Clutter and Groups killed Office 365's People View — "A combination of space pressure in OWA, the needs of Office 365 Groups, and the effectiveness of Clutter killed People View."

Microsoft Band: Changing Your Goals for Steps and Calories — "Changing the Microsoft Band defaults is not a glaringly evident task. Altering the daily goals needs to be done directly in the Microsoft Health app installed on your smartphone. "

Tricking the Microsoft Band into Quicker Paces and Shorter Treadmill Runs — "One thing I've noticed and spent a few rainy days testing is the discrepancy between what the treadmill readout and what the Microsoft Band records. I've noticed this since owning the Microsoft Band, but just decided to dig a bit deeper into the whys and wherefores."
 

AND NOW, MICROSOFT NEWS AROUND THE WEB ...

Microsoft released  Build 10159 to the Fast ring today. Per Gabe Aul:

We’d been using 10158 for almost a week and knew it was going to be a strong build, and the data backed that up so we released it yesterday. Hot on its heels though was build 10159, which in addition to more fixes (over 300 of them!), took in one very interesting change. We didn’t want to wait with 10158 so we went ahead and released that build while we were still evaluating 10159. As it turns out though, 10159 is also a great build and passes our criteria for the Windows Insider Fast ring.

And Office 365 has made partnerships with Actiance and Globate, two archiving vendors who capture social media, IM, mobile and text communications, branded verticals like Salesforce Chatter, document collaboration in Box and Dropbox, and other non-Microsoft streams of data. The alliance will offer archiving for non-Microsoft data in Office 365. "By simply indicating Office 365 as an archiving destination in their products, customers will be able to immediately capture data from numerous data sources," the Microsoft Office blog reports.