They make their money on Office 365 subscriptions from consumers.
Yeah, but Office is cross-platform and thus the revenue from it is not a direct function of their Windows install base. Therefore it isn't as likely to affect how strict or loose they are with their license enforcement.
I'm not sure it's a cross-platform app so much as a Web service running on Windows servers...? Multi-browser?
I'm not sure it's a cross-platform app so much as a Web service running on Windows servers...? Multi-browser?
It thinks that's a reference to the fact that it's also on Mac.
Does it run on a browser on Mac, like on Windows? Or is it a full install? I thought the whole deal with O365 is that it's browser based, rather than an app? Maybe I'm just clueless lol.
So it looks like O365 is a SAAS, while Microsoft 365 includes downloadable apps that are loaded "just in time" when first used, and also access to cloud services under the umbrella. Both require a subscription, with the apps falling into read-only mode if the subscription lapses.
I guess then that there are apps for the Mac, which surprises me.
Office launches apps on my Mac. Not sure what version it is; my wife installed it and she's the one with the license. I think it's part of her subscription but I'm not sure. I usually stick with Apple's "iWork" stuff; it's less powerful but much easier to do the things that I do with it.
Historically, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit has been one of the better software outfits out there. That's incredibly weird, and hard for folks who only live in the Windows world to believe, but it's true. Or at least used to be. I haven't actually kept up with their stuff in recent years.
The last time I used any MS stuff on a Mac was... Geez, it was probably connected to the network via a blue coax cable lol. So yeah, I had no idea. I do remember when MS screwed up Office on the iPad too.
Guess I have to unscrew that bias lamp.
So I've got a Samsung smart TV that I'm using at work as a display monitor. It works great when I connect to it via AirPlay. The problem is when someone forgets and turns off the computer before they turn off the TV. When that happens, the TV flips itself to Samsung's streaming video service. I try to keep it on something inoffensive like Bob Ross or PBS Kids, but they keep reshuffling their channel lineup and we'll get Baywatch or some random bit of violence.
What I really want is for the TV to go to some kind of blank screen when the AirPlay signal ends. The problem is when I try to search for solutions, I'm flooded with results for people who's problem is they're getting a blank screen when they don't want one. Anybody got any ideas for how to sort this out?
Disconnect it from wifi? Or does AirPlay require a local wifi connection?
Airplay works over wifi. And I need the wifi to be connected to the internet for streaming purposes. I suppose I could set up a second wifi network just for the Airplay, but that seems like a lot for what should be a setting on the damn TV.
There is this Why does my tv suddenly default to SamSunTV Plus instead of the HDMI post (my computer) now?
If that doesn't work, try using a cheap Amazon Fire Stick or something similar and plug it into the HDMI. Then set that to the next app so when the TV disconnects from the computer, it will go to it instead of Samsung.
I tried that this morning, but it still seems to be going back to the streaming video in the absence of other sources. I'll see about getting a $10 hdmi stick I think.
What's a good robot vacuum cleaner these days?
I have an old Roomba that takes a lot of babysitting. It can fill up with dog hair in 15 minutes, and I have this whole checklist of things it'll get stuck on that I have to move before starting it (this chair, that lamp cord, etc.). I'd love to be able to run the vacuum while the humans are out of the house and not have to rearrange furniture first.
I give our Airrobo zero stars out of five.
The battery dies before it's done half of the main floor (admittedly a big area but still) -it doesn't even make it back to the charging base, just up and dies wherever it is.
It mostly blows the cat hair into the corners rather than picking it up and misses enormous areas entirely due to a fairly busy furniture layout.
It was a waste of a couple hundo and I'm all "I told you so" to my wife who insisted on getting it despite my protestations.
Anyone got any idea how to search for information on the new Steam Family feature that won't flood me with hits about the old Family Library Sharing setup?
Sometimes if I log on to quickly after starting up my pc, the (wired) internet connection never initializes. There's some phase that takes a few seconds after startup that only seems to happen when the pc is at the welcome screen. There's ways to repair the connection after the fact, but to be honest, simply rebooting and waiting longer before logging in is the easiest course of action.
All my drivers and what not appear to be uptodate. Any clues as to what might be going on and what the best solution other than "don't log on too fast" might be? (I mean yeah, "don't log on too fast" is a perfectly valid answer, but I forget after a few days, just looking to see if there's something else to be done).
Anyone got any idea how to search for information on the new Steam Family feature that won't flood me with hits about the old Family Library Sharing setup?
Put "2024" in your search? But then you get all of the spam sites that auto-increment the last updated date on their articles. Welcome to the crappy internet.
It doesn't help that the feature rolled out relatively late in 2024, so even recent guides that were made in good faith are out of date.
Anyway, it turns out the solution to my problem was to embarrass myself by making a public post in Steam's help section, at which point my wife discovers that she missed a confirmation email. An email that I had asked her about, but she thought I was talking about the message with the initial invite.
With google you can go to search tools and say you want only pages from the past week or month. It is based on indexing so I find it is a good way to filter older content out
What is a good, free way to remote desktop to a home pc?
What is a good, free way to remote desktop to a home pc?
Assuming Windows on both sides of the connection...
Will there be someone at the remote PC who can take an action to get the connection going? If so, you can use the builtin "Remote Assistance" (or "Quick Assist" in Win 11) app. And yes, it should work regardless of which version of Windows you have on the local and remote sides.
There will be no one on the other end. It would be for me to control my home pc from somewhere else.
Parsec for the best latency.
Like if you wanted to game on your home PC remotely
I remoted into my beast home PC to play Diablo 3 with all the bells and whistles on my laptop. (from SF bay area to Los Angeles)
There will be no one on the other end. It would be for me to control my home pc from somewhere else.
For a simple no fuss solution, TeamViewer is still going strong. Just make sure to have a complex password and turn on two factor authorization.
Parsec for the best latency.
Like if you wanted to game on your home PC remotely
Side note: if it's for gaming, Steam can do this automatically for games installed through it. No setup even, besides installing the game on the target PC.
For non gaming, I've always used Chrome remote desktop and had no big issues
Steam remote streaming is easy, but performance does not measure up against Parsec. Something to consider for twitchier games, less important for streaming Civilization.
For a TeamViewer alternative, there's the open source RustDesk. I especially like RustDesk because I can use my own self-hosted server to be the middleman, but that's not a requirement.
Chrome Remote Desktop has worked for me for years. Plus you can do it from your phone in a pinch, if not from another laptop or whatever.
Thanks, set up Chrome Remote Desktop and it's working well.
I gots a question on Windows 11's selection of audio devices....my headset (Steelseries Arctis 7) has two channels, one for "game", one for chat. Typically the "game" channel is the default for Windows - . However, if I boot up SteamVR, Windows correctly switches over to the VR headset as the active audio channel.
When I turn VR back off though, Windows will automatically select the chat channel of my headset as the active audio device, so no audio comes out (because there's no input to that chat channel).
How can I stop Windows from doing that? Windows sees them as two distinct devices in the Sound Settings (confirmed in the Control Panel > Sound window), and the default settings seem sane.
You can tell Steam to not switch over the sound device when activated. Then you can use something like Voicemeeter banana or VB Audio Cable so you can send the audio to both your headphones and the VR headset.
I'm gonna second Banana, even though it's a bit complicated to get set up right. When it works, it's great.
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