Monday, May 26, 2014

Unexpected Outage Of Outlook.Com Email Services Leaves Users In Confusion

The unexpected outage of Outlook.com last week (Wednesday) caused frustration among hundreds of users. According to Microsoft experts who investigated the Outlook problems found out that the cause of the Outlook.com outage was the failure of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). Microsoft makes use of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) to enable smooth and uninterrupted syncing of data stored on Microsoft Exchange Server with smartphones, tablets and PCs. This facility enables users to sync all types of data ranging from emails to contacts to calendars.

In its latest blog post, Microsoft extended its apology for the unexpected outage of the email service and the inconvenience it caused for millions of users across the world. The apology that was published in its service status board reads “We want to apologize to everyone who was affected by the outage, and we appreciate the patience you have shown us as we worked through the issues.”

Outage impacts SkyDrive cloud storage

It was not just Outlook.com email users who suffered from the unexpected outage but also users of Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service. Partial outage on Peoples contacts application was also reported on the same day about 10 a.m. The worst part was that the issue even affected users who tried to access the Outlook.com email account via their smartphone devices. The mobile version of Outlook.com employs EAS to enable users to access their email accounts. It is the same service that enables iPhones users also to access email services. The synchronization problem on mobile devices persisted until 4.30 on Saturday, about four days after the issue had been detected.

The technical department of Microsoft said that it was looking into the issue on wartime basis. It assured users that there will be well-founded measures to avoid similar issues happening in future. The team blamed cache service failure for the outage of the service on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Microsoft to increase network bandwidth

Microsoft said that it had taken two remarkable steps to prevent similar issues from taking place in future. One of the remedies that it had taken already includes increasing the bandwidth for the vulnerable parts in the system. Another step is the incorporation of an unconventional procedure to handle issues pertaining to Exchange ActiveSync.

It is reassuring that Microsoft is taking up creative measures to prevent Outlook problems in future. Microsoft has been more inclusive lately in covering issues with many of its services, especially email applications.

Monday, May 12, 2014

How To Uninstall Toolbars?

Toolbars appear as a series of buttons on the browser, when you search for something on the Internet. These buttons or add-ons have specific functions and are intended to provide a user-friendly, advanced and convenient browsing experience to the users. But sometimes, these programs may try to replace your browser’s home page with the search engine that they represent. Moreover, some toolbars are also found to install malicious programs on the system. Hence, in such cases removing a toolbar becomes necessary.

Although there are several third-party toolbar remover tools available, you can use the following instructions provided by the Windows tech support to do the same.

Instructions
  • In order to uninstall the toolbar program from your computer, you need to first click on the Start button followed by Control Panel, and then click on Uninstall a program.
  • But if you are using Windows 8 operating system, you can simply drag your mouse pointer to the right edge of the screen. Here, you need to select the Search option from the list and then select “Control Panel“. Alternatively, you can also right-click on a bottom left corner and choose the Control Panel option from there and type in Uninstall a program.
  • Now, once you see the Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall a Program screen, you can scroll through the list of currently installed programs in your system. Here, you need to check which programs you need to uninstall. Make sure you delete the recently installed or unknown programs from your computer.
  • According to Windows tech support, the most commonly found programs installed on users’ computers include: BitGuard, Delta Toolbar, DefaultTab, Search Protect by Conduit, Ask toolbar, Babylon Toolbar, Browser Protect, WebCake, Mixi.DJ toolbar etc.
  • As mentioned earlier, if you are not able to uninstall the specific toolbar or program from the system manually, you can always resort to the various advanced third-party toolbar remover tools. You can also contact the Windows tech support to get more information on the removal of these unwanted programs.
  • It is always recommended to uninstall all programs, which you have not installed yourself and do not know its function. This is essential especially to remove the malware programs, which can harm your computer.
These instructions can help you to successfully remove the toolbar programs in your system. For more assistance regarding the uninstallation of toolbars and unwanted programs, feel free to contact our technical support team.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Microsoft Stops The Option To Update Xbox One Offline

Microsoft has recently pulled the customer support page that offered the option to download Xbox One’s patch on a PC. The user can then update their Xbox One console through a USB device. The files and instructions to manually update the Xbox console offline was removed by Microsoft. The company says that it will work directly with the customers who need the option. Microsoft explained that the website was intended as a support tool that is aimed at helping the customers whose console is not connecting to Live due to some issues. These customers were still able to do the update with these instructions. Microsoft officials also said that they do not have any plans to put back this removed page.

These instructions were aimed at helping the Xbox One owners by allowing ways to update their gaming console without the need to connect to the Internet. Previously, Microsoft had listed a twenty-step guide that helps the users download the latest Xbox One firmware to a USB device and then use it to update the gaming console. But, Microsoft has now pulled the associated files and instructions to do this. To get the best experience, the Xbox One device will need a Day One update when the device is first switched on.

"The site was not an alternative way to take the Day One update and customers still need to connect to Xbox Live for the update,” said one of the Microsoft spokesperson to GameSpot. Microsoft had said previously that the new Xbox One console will do very little without the Day One update. Microsoft is trying to encourage the customers who might require an offline update to contact the Microsoft helpline directly. Because of the complexity of this customer support process we’ve actually removed the page and we will work with customers directly to make sure they have a smooth experience," they said.

Let us hope that this move from Microsoft will prove to be helpful to the Xbox One owners. After the initial release of the device, the sales of the console have much increased and the customers are much satisfied by the performance and efficiency of the device. If you wish to know more on the option to update the Xbox One console offline, you can contact the Microsoft helpline number. They will be able to provide you with more details on this news.