Microsoft Shows Off Windows Sets, New Outlook Features

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By Andrew E. Freedman
published


SEATTLE – At its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft showed off a few new features that will enhance Windows 10. Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Windows, detailed updates to Sets and Outlook.

Sets, which will likely be a major part of the next update to Windows 10, is a way to organize windows with tabs, like how you already manage web browsing. For example, you might keep a few browser tabs, a PowerPoint presentation and an image editor open in one window if you were putting together a presentation. Additionally, entire Sets will be stored in the Windows Timeline so that you can pull up every app involved in a project. You can see our hands-on with Sets from the Build showfloor here. 

Microsoft is trying to entice developers into building Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps for the Microsoft Store, and we now know that those apps will work with Sets from the start. However, the company is also promising that your favorite Win32 programs and web apps will also be supported in Sets. Belfiore said on stage that Sets will be available "when we think that it is great," stating that it needs developer support to make sure that programs work with it.

Additionally, Microsoft 365 will support Adaptive Cards, a feature that allows for interactions within conversations. The big focus is on Outlook, where Microsoft is using these cards to introduce payments. With Microsoft Pay, users will be able to quickly pay their bills directly from their inbox. Program manager Charles Morris paid a bill in Outlook in just a few clicks, but it required the developer to create an adaptive card for it. Invoice partners supporting Adaptive Cards include Sage, Intuit, Stripe and Wave.

Morris also showed an example were a form sent in an email from Github could be filled out in an email, without navigating to the actual site. 

Belfiore also suggested that the next Insider Build will put web pages in the Alt+Tab menu, making it easier to access specific web tabs you had open.

Microsoft also took some time to announce new Windows 10’s phone-syncing features, including a “Your Phone” app that will let you connect your smartphone to read text messages, view photos and check notifications.

This article originally appeared on Laptop Mag. Image Credit: Microsoft

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • lperreault21
    Why do people even use anything other than Gmail and Chrome / Firefox
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    How about speeding up IMAP folders in Outlook. Also add native support for syncing tasks, calendars and contacts with major providers. Such as Google, Yahoo and iCloud. Mainly Google. Until then I'll keep using Thunderbird. It's much faster.
    Reply
  • ThisIsMe
    Why do people even use gmail when there is Outlook.com? It's easier to look at, easier to use, and more secure. Oh and people only jumped to Chrome so quickly because back in the day it was basically forced down their throats by being included with every free download of anything and installed on many PC's without the users even knowing it. It's a good browser, definitely better than FireFox, but isn't all that. All it did was put Google in a market position to push out competing web technology companies, eg Adobe, to force upon everyone their own versions of the same stuff.

    Sorry, not trying to rant, but Google is one of the worst companies every and things are just now coming to light proving this. Any company who deals in marketing and selling information... well you decide.
    Reply
  • antilycus
    Companies don't want 10 different products from 10 different companies that all have proprietary "standards". They don't want Hangouts for video, Pidgin for Chat, Thunderbird for E-mail, Chrome for Web browsing, Google voice for VOIP (not that google can pick what it plans to do with their hot mess of products anyways), Google docs is web only and NOT EXPORTABLE TO A USEFUL FORMAT(I know because I've had to migrate dozens of customers from it and it costs them tens of thousands because of it), dropbox for hosted storage, etc etc etc.

    Microsoft offers their 1 proprietary package (which will be the end of them). They have MS TEAMS(chat), Outlook (Email), o365 (hosted platform), Office Suite (licensing can be included within Office 365), Sharepoint (intranet), OneDrive (storage), Skype (voip) and 1 single, easy to manage/pay bill.

    GOOGLE DOESN'T OFFER THIS. Google can't be exported to standard open formats (Office suite can). This is what Microsoft offers and nobody else can compete with and they sell it by being SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the competition because they know once you are in the MS Eco system, you won't leave...it's too time consuming and costly.

    Nobody else stepped up to the plate and MS will eventually burn them all by doing things like making Office 2016 only run on WIN10 or WIN16 to get more licensing sales. Thank you Apple.
    Reply
  • Dosflores
    20953429 said:
    Nobody else stepped up to the plate and MS will eventually burn them all by doing things like making Office 2016 only run on WIN10 or WIN16 to get more licensing sales.

    Microsoft will only do that when their previous Windows versions reach their end-of-support status. While they support Windows 7, the latest version of Office will run on Windows 7. They're smart enough to do that.

    Microsoft has definitely created a strong portfolio of software and services. So much so, that they don't care for Windows as much as they used to. They keep adding new features to W10, of course, but they don't mind if you prefer macOS or Linux. They have software and services for them, such as Office for Mac. And since they forsook Windows Phone, they can focus on iOS and Android, as well.

    They offer good value with 365 things, and make it hard for you to leave them. Recently I cancelled my subscription to Office 365, since all I need for home use is Thunderbird and LibreOffice. The very same day I cancelled, I received an e-mail to encourage me to schedule a phone call whenever I liked so the support team could solve any issues I had with Office 365. I'm positive I don't need it, but they do offer a great service for companies.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    20952936 said:
    Why do people even use gmail when there is Outlook.com? It's easier to look at, easier to use, and more secure. Oh and people only jumped to Chrome so quickly because back in the day it was basically forced down their throats by being included with every free download of anything and installed on many PC's without the users even knowing it. It's a good browser, definitely better than FireFox, but isn't all that. All it did was put Google in a market position to push out competing web technology companies, eg Adobe, to force upon everyone their own versions of the same stuff.

    Sorry, not trying to rant, but Google is one of the worst companies every and things are just now coming to light proving this. Any company who deals in marketing and selling information... well you decide.

    Because Outlook.com is clunky and buggy and slow compared to gmail. I tried switching 4 years ago from gmail to outlook.com when they started to offer more space and excellent 'rules' like sweep and when I was deep into the Windows Phone ecosystem... However, it was a total disaster. Search didn't work. Not that it was slow, it literally couldn't search. I called microsoft: It was a known bug... Didn't get fixed until last year. Keep in mind, I'm a paying Office 365 customer (not that outlook.com was part of that 4 years ago, that was only combined a year and a half ago or so)...

    Did they eventually fix the problem? Yes: When the re-did the interface for outlook.com. But it is too late: I don't trust MS anymore. They were soooooooooooo bad.

    I may yet again try to switch, but I have yet to see a compelling reason to, unless MS can do better jobs with integrating things like OneNote and Outlook, or something else...

    Reply
  • mihen
    Will the new phone syncing work with Windows Mobile?
    Reply
  • russnaturalist
    so if you like the idea of the Windows "Sets" you dont have to wait. try "Fences" from Stardock. you can organize all your aps into pop-up folders on the desktop and dock them as pull-down menu at the edges.

    https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
    Reply
  • dan_L
    There's no need to wait for the next version of Windows 10 to get the "sets" feature. It's already available from Stardock.com in an inexpensive $9.99 utility called "Groupy" and a similarly inexpensive utility ($9.99 or less) called TidyTabs from www.nurgo-software.com/products/tidytabs. Both enable you to combine windows from different programs into a single window with tabs. Both enable you to set them up so that, for example, all of your Word files open in a single windows with tabs. Groupy generates the more pleasant looking tabs. Both are available as 30-day free trials.
    Reply
  • dan_L
    There's no need to wait for the next version of Windows 10 to get the "sets" feature. "Sets" is already available from Stardock.com in an inexpensive $9.99 utility called "Groupy" and a similarly inexpensive utility ($9.99 or less) called TidyTabs from www.nurgo-software.com/products/tidytabs. Both enable you to combine windows from different programs into a single window with tabs. Both enable you to set them up so that, for example, all of your Word files open in a single windows with tabs. Groupy generates the more pleasant looking tabs. Both are available as 30-day free trials.
    Reply