Microsoft qualifications will pad the CV for another year, Teams for ventilator boffins, and Windows 10 threatened with very retro news app

Cross out the expiry date on your rapidly ageing role-based certification - you've got an extra six months. But that wasn't the only thing to break from Redmond in the past week, here are the best bits. Certification expiry extended Those seeking a boost to their self-esteem via a Microsoft qualification will be delighted to …

[Irongut]

Wow that News Bar is just awful. Looks like a pup you remove when a friend / relative asks you to look at their computer because it's a bit slow. (i.e. slower than a wheezing tortoise)

[Pascal Monett]

And if you click on it, it opens Edge instead of the default browser.

How difficult is it to open the default browser ? I'd think it's more difficult to set it to open to a specific browser.

Microsoft, let it go. Nobody uses Edge.

[Robert Grant]

I think you're going to look back in a few years time and wonder how they did it. Now they've given up making core browser infrastructure, they can focus on what they're good at: extending Edge with tickbox enterprise features that curry favour with IT managers. That gets them into large enterprises, which gets them back into the home.

Maybe :-)

[IGotOut]

Shudder...... browser toolbars. Installed because a website says you NEED IT. Come to think of it, bit Google Chrome.

[Roland6]

>Wow that News Bar is just awful.

And a total waste of screen estate.

Lets hope that both end users and GPE can easily turn it off permanently.

[RyokuMas]

Le sigh...

Hmmm. So all the while I'm trying to do something productive, I'm going to be distracted by something moving along the bottom of my screen...

Good job Microsoft's foot-shooting is only metaphorical - otherwise they'd be competing for "top reason fo being in hospital" against COVID-19...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Le sigh...

> Hmmm. So all the while I'm trying to do something productive, I'm going to be distracted by something moving along the bottom of my screen...

+1. Along with notifications from Yammer / Teams / Skype . It's like there's a whole department in MS whose sole job is to prevent users from being productive. Presumably the dept. head is a bloke named Crowley?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what I though. Looks like some sort of throwback to the 90s.

Let's hope they bring back Bonzi Buddy as well.

[Michael Maxwell]

And given that my task bar is vertical (along the left-hand side of the screen), I wonder how putting the news bar above it will work. Maybe it will be off-screen :-).

[Jaap Aap]

Will the Microsoft Certified Solitaire Engineer certification be replaced with the Microsoft Certified Minesweeper Engineer?

[hitmouse]

If you play your cards right

[Franco]

I'm working towards the optional Hearts Specialisation.

Good news for me though, I bought a voucher to finally do my 2016 upgrade exam and was afraid I'd lose it cos the test centres and online bookings are always mobbed at the best of times when there's exams expiring, never mind with the current backlog.

[Roland6]

Rise of Windows 10 1909

"New shiny aside, the latest production version of Windows 10, released last year as 1909 or 19H2 depending on your preferred naming convention, saw a considerable jump in usage from 22.6 per cent usage to 28.2 per cent in the latest batch of figures from AdDuplex."

I expect next month's figures will show a significant increase in 1909, and a massive decline in Win7 as people rushed to install systems with Windows 10 and Teams.