MS-100 pdf - Microsoft 365 Identity and Services Updated: 2024

Office Insiders trialing preview updates on iOS and iPadOS can get the latest Microsoft 365 app version with a great new feature: PDF Merge. Now you can grab several PDF documents and fuse them into one large file without downloading extra PDF managers.

You can try PDF merging in the Microsoft 365 application by downloading version 2.76 or newer (build 23062603). Next, head to the PDF toolbox, select the merge command, pick the files you need, and tap continue. Arrange the files or add more, then tap Merge and watch the app doing its software magic. After that, the Microsoft 365 app will automatically save the merged PDF file on your device, allowing you to find and retrieve it for further use or processing using existing PDF capabilities.

It is worth noting that the App Store on iOS and iPadOS is full of PDF-editing apps with document merging capabilities. Those features often require signing up for a paid subscription, and Microsoft is no exception—PDF merging is only available for Microsoft 365 subscribers. You can get and use the app for free, but attempting to fuse two or more PDF documents into one will result in Microsoft politely asking you to pay.

The updated Microsoft 365 app for iOS is rolling out to insiders gradually. Microsoft practices such an approach to ensure things are working smoothly. It is weird to see extra caution in the program for testing preview updates, but it is the sad reality of Microsoft's insider program.

Merging PDF files is not the only new PDF-related feature in the Microsoft 365 app. Earlier this month, the company introduced the ability to extract separate pages from PDF documents on Android. You can learn more about the feature in our dedicated coverage. Those willing to become Microsoft 365 insiders can visit the program's official website to get started.

Steven Sinofsky, the senior vice president for Office, made the announcement at the weekend's Microsoft MVP Global Summit in Redmond, Wash., a gathering of some 3,000 whom the company's designated as its Most Valuable Professionals.

Users will be able to save documents in PDF form by using the "Save As" command from within Office applications, said Sinofsky. "Instead of printing the document and faxing it, or overnight-mailing it, customers can save a PDF and electronically distribute a read-only, 'as-printed' representation of the document," he added in a statement.

Most of the applications that will be included in Office 12, as well as stand-alone programs which are part of Microsoft Office, will have the new capability, said Sinofsky, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, InfoPath, Visio, Publisher, and OneNote.

According to Betsy Frost, Microsoft's general manager of marketing, the move is a reaction to customer demand. "We've had a very significant amount of customer feedback about PDF," she said, "with up to 120,000 requests a month for the feature from Office users.

Microsoft is late to the PDF party. Other Windows application suites, including Corel's WordPerfect Office, Sun's StarOffice, and the free-of-charge, open-source OpenOffice.org, already have PDF publishing capabilities.

Adobe, which claims that the file type is the most popular on the Internet, made PDF available in a public specification in 1993; under that specification, Adobe lets other developers' software create PDFs without paying a licensing free.

"Microsoft's adding PDF validates the role of PDF in customer workflow," said Pam Deziel, the director of platform strategies for San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe.

Adobe and Microsoft have been longtime partners, but the two are increasingly at odds over turf such as forms -- Microsoft jumped into the market in 2003 with its InfoPath -- and photo editing. In mid-September, for instance, Microsoft said it was gunning for Adobe's PhotoShop with its own graphics package, code named "Acrylic Graphic Designer" for the moment.

Another direct attack on Adobe could come from Metro, a combination of file format, document viewer, and page description language planned as part of Windows Vista, the next-generation desktop client due out in late 2006.

"It's a natural part of business that Microsoft is entering areas where Adobe has products," Deziel said. "In the future, we'll be both cooperating and competing with Microsoft." When asked whether Adobe, which is in the final process of a $3.4 billion merger with Macromedia, is afraid of Microsoft intruding on its turf, Deziel side-stepped the question by simply saying "Microsoft is a $40 billion monopoly, and a formidable opponent."

Microsoft's addition of PDF to the file format list of Office could also be seen as a way to smooth relations with governments and businesses demanding open-source file formats for saving documents. Massachusetts, for example, has banned the purchase of software which doesn't save in "open" document formats; by Massachusetts' definition, PDF is such a format.

Microsoft, however, denied that the PDF add to Office 12 was a response to Massachusetts. "First and foremost this was an answer to our customers," said Microsoft's Frost.

Yet if the fallout was better relations with government agencies and private enterprises after open-standard file formats, all the better. "One of the key trends that businesses and government have is the sharing of information across organizational boundaries. With PDF, businesses or even government can take advantage of that capability [to share documents," Frost added.

Microsoft has said it hopes to ship Office 12 in late 2006.

You can allow or block Microsoft Edge from opening PDF files externally by changing some settings using Registry Editor or Group Policy Editor in Windows 11/10. In this post, we will show you how to make Edge open PDF files externally or block Edge from opening PDF files externally, depending on your preferences.

To allow or block Microsoft Edge from opening PDF files externally, follow these steps:

1. Search for group policy in the Taskbar search box.
2. Click on the search result.
3. Navigate to Microsoft Edge in User Configuration.
4. Double-click on the Always open PDF files externally setting.
5. Choose the Enabled option to allow.
6. Choose the Disabled option to block.
7. Click the OK button.

Let’s check out these steps in detail.

First, you need to open the Local Group Policy Editor. For that, you can search for group policy in the Taskbar search box and click on the edit group policy search result.

Then, navigate to the following path:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge

In the Microsoft Edge folder, you can find a setting named Always open PDF files externally. You need to double-click on this setting and choose the Enabled option to allow and the Disabled option to block.

Then, click the OK button to save the change. Finally, you need to restart the Microsoft Edge browser.

In case you want to revert to the original setting, you need to open the same setting in the Local Group Policy Editor and choose the Not Configured option. As usual, restart the Microsoft Edge browser to apply the change.

Allow or prevent Microsoft Edge from opening PDF files externally using Registry

To allow or prevent Microsoft Edge from opening PDF files externally using Registry, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+R > type regedit > hit the Enter button.
2. Click on the Yes button.
3. Go to Microsoft\Edge in HKCU.
4. Right-click on Edge > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Set the name as AlwaysOpenPdfExternally.
6. Double-click on it to set the Value data.
7. Enter 1 to allow and 0 to block.
8. Click the OK button.
9. Restart your computer.

To learn more about these steps, continue reading.

First, press Win+R to display the Run prompt, type regedit, hit the Enter button, and click on the Yes option on the UAC prompt to open the Registry Editor.

Then, navigate to this path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

If you cannot find Edge, right-click on Microsoft > New > Key and name it Edge.

Then, right-click on Edge > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and set the name as AlwaysOpenPdfExternally.

By default, it comes with a Value data of 0. If you want to prevent Edge from opening PDF files externally, you need to keep that Value data. However, if you want to allow Edge to open PDF files externally, you need to double-click on it and set the Value data as 1.

Finally, click the OK button, close all windows, and restart your computer to get the change.

Read: How to allow or block Google Chrome from opening PDF files externally

How do I stop Microsoft Edge from hijacking my default PDF program?

The procedure to change the default PDF reader is the same for changing any default program. To stop Microsoft Edge from hijacking your default PDF program or opener, you can use this guide. It is possible to stop Microsoft Edge from opening PDF files. For that, you need to open the Always open PDF files externally setting and choose the Enabled option. You can do the same using Registry Editor as well.

Why does Microsoft Edge keep opening my PDF files?

The default setting allows Microsoft Edge to open PDF files on your Windows computer. At times, you might not want to do that. If so, you can use GPEDIT or REGEDIT to make the change. Two detailed guides are mentioned above, and it is recommended to follow any of them according to your wish to stop Edge from opening PDF files.

That’s all! Hope these solutions worked.

Read: How to change default PDF Viewer from Edge to any other.

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Microsoft has again disabled the MSIX ms-appinstaller protocol handler after multiple financially motivated threat groups abused it to infect Windows users with malware.

The attackers exploited the CVE-2021-43890 Windows AppX Installer spoofing vulnerability to circumvent security measures that would otherwise protect Windows users from malware, such as the Defender SmartScreen anti-phishing and anti-malware component and built-in browser alerts cautioning users against executable file downloads.

Microsoft says the threat actors use both malicious advertisements for popular software and Microsoft Teams phishing messages to push signed malicious MSIX application packages.

"Since mid-November 2023, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed threat actors, including financially motivated actors like Storm-0569, Storm-1113, Sangria Tempest, and Storm-1674, utilizing the ms-appinstaller URI scheme (App Installer) to distribute malware," the company said.

"The observed threat actor activity abuses the current implementation of the ms-appinstaller protocol handler as an access vector for malware that may lead to ransomware distribution. Multiple cybercriminals are also selling a malware kit as a service that abuses the MSIX file format and ms-app installer protocol handler."

The Sangria Tempest (aka FIN7) financially-motivated hacking group has previously been linked to REvil and Maze ransomware after their involvement in the now-defunct BlackMatter and DarkSide ransomware operations.

In a private Microsoft threat analytics report seen by BleepingComputer, FIN7 was also connected to attacks targeting PaperCut printing servers with Clop ransomware.

As BleepingComputer reported over two years ago, Emotet also used malicious Windows AppX Installer packages camouflaged as Adobe PDF software in December 2021 to infect Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems.

Additionally, the AppX Installer spoofing vulnerability was exploited to distribute the BazarLoader malware using malicious packages hosted on Microsoft Azure, using *.web.core.windows.net URLs.

Microsoft previously disabled the ms-appinstaller protocol handler in February 2022 to thwart Emotet's onslaught.

Since devices compromised as part of these attacks may also be targeted with ransomware, Redmond disabled the ms-appinstaller protocol handler once again earlier this month.

While Microsoft says that it was disabled by default today, December 28, 2023, others report that the change was pushed out earlier this month. However, it is unclear when and why Microsoft reenabled the Windows App Installer between February 2022 and December 2023.

Today, Microsoft recommended installing the patched App Installer version 1.21.3421.0 or later to block exploitation attempts.

The company also advised admins who can't immediately deploy the latest App Installer version to disable the protocol by setting the Group Policy EnableMSAppInstallerProtocol to Disabled.

Microsoft Edge on Android and iOS finally supports a full-fledged Copilot experience with nearly all features available on desktop, including plugins, PDF AI and the ability to generate video summaries. On iOS, Microsoft is also testing a full-screen experience for Copilot, tailored for iPad.

Microsoft Edge’s advanced Copilot for Android and iOS is available to everyone in the stable channel. Still, you may need to turn on a couple of experimental flags to try all the new features. Some of you may already have access to Copilot features without turning on flags, as Microsoft appears to be A/B testing AI.

By default, Microsoft Edge’s Copilot on iOS and Android can summarise PDFs, generate text-based answers, and DALL-E 3-powered AI images. When you open a PDF in Edge and click the Copilot icon, AI automatically generates a summary. This works on Android and as well iOS.

As you can see in the above screenshot, Edge Copilot can turn your long PDF documents into short summaries or “key points”. You can also interact with different sections of the PDF, and Microsoft sources tell me the PDF AI integration in Edge will Strengthen contextual queries with GPT-4 Turbo.

PDF AI also works on iOS. However, if you use an iPad and do not see Copilot in the menu, you can head to Edge://flags and enable an experimental flag called “Pad support Copilot” to use the AI on a large screen.

If Copilot still doesn’t support PDF on iOS, you may also need to enable the flags shown in the screenshot below.

Edge Copilot can summarize your videos on iOS or Android

Edge on iOS and Android can summarize YouTube videos, but the feature works only when a transcript is available.

That’s because Edge’s video Copilot summarizes the texts, not the frames of the video.

Edge Copilot’s video summary is limited to pre-processed videos or YouTube content with subtitles. In other words, you won’t be able to summarize all videos, but Microsoft said it should work for most YouTube content.

“In order for it to work, we need to pre-process the video. If the video has subtitles – we can always fallback on that, if it does not and we didn’t preprocess it yet – then it won’t work,” Microsoft stated in response to a user on X.

Copilot plugins now work on iOS and Android

Microsoft is also adding Copilot plugins to Android and iOS. This means you can finally turn off Bing’s search engine capabilities in AI and use it as a standalone chatbot like ChatGPT.

With search turned off, Copilot is just as good as OpenAI’s ChatGPT with faster responses, but it would supply you outdated information depending on the query.

Again, this feature won’t be available for everyone, but if you’re lucky enough, you’ll even find third-party plugins in the Edge menu.

As you can see in the above screenshot, a third-party plugin called “Shop” generates the best deals for electronic products. Similarly, another third-party plugin, “Instacart”, is good at finding recipes for your lunch or dinner.

Microsoft is also testing other plugins for Copilot and it has plans to bring ChatGPT’s GPTs to Bing soon.