There can be no denying that Windows 8 has brought a radical new change to Windows as we know it. The Metro UI is completely new to Windows, it does take some time to get used to. One Ex-Microsoft employee has decided to express his views about the new Metro UI and Windows 8 as a whole. And he doesn’t like it.

The former employee has launched a website called “Fixing Windows 8” (at the time of writing this the website appears to be down) where he outlines various different suggestions that Microsoft could do the improve the user experience. The former employee is Mike Bibik who is a user interface designer.

Like a lot of people, Mike is pretty annoyed by the lack of a start button in Windows 8. His biggest gripe however seems to be with the new Metro UI and how it all seems to be based around touch ,with mouse and keyboard controls thrown in as an after thought.

During the MWC keynote, Microsoft made it very clear that Windows 8 will work fantastically if you are using touch, mouse or keyboard, Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true.

Mikes main concerns are as follows:

• New users won’t have a clue how to navigate through the interface as so many choices are hidden from view. You’ll need to know the various gestures to open up settings, the charms menu and other options. Also the lack of the start button will have users confused as to where they can find a master list of apps on their machine.
• Because of the new Metro apps and how they function, they don’t have window controls like minimize and exit which will confuse users. They may not be aware of the fact that Windows 8 will pause apps and that they do not have to close them
• Because the charms menu is hidden from view until the user goes looking for it, it makes it very difficult to perform basic options like searching within apps or powering off your device unless you know where to look.

I can agree with him on some of these points, but not entirely. I think that novice users, who are used to using a traditional desktop like Windows 7 will have trouble getting to terms with the lack of a start button and the hidden charm and settings controls. But power users and even intermediate Windows users should not have any problems getting to grips with the new controls very quickly.

You can be sure that Microsoft will have a very comprehensive walk through of the new features when users power up a Windows 8 machine for the first time. I can imagine that there will also be an extensive marketing campaign to inform users of how different Windows 8 is compared to previous Windows OS’s.

Mike say’s that he’s not trying to be negative, he just wants to be informative and offer his opinion for alternative solutions. These include

• Combining the desktop task bar with the new Start screen
• Combining Charms and the master apps list into a single menu
• Adding a dedicated Charms bar to the bottom of the screen
• Reinstating a Start button on the desktop

Windows 8 is a big change, there’s no denying that, but there is an increasing number of people starting to be won over by it. I for one was a little sceptical at first, but after using it for a while now with just a mouse and keyboard, I’ve actually become quite used to all the gestures. I think what freaks most people out is the fact that you can’t see any on screen options until you actual perform a gesture by moving to the corners etc.. but it doesn’t take too long until that becomes second nature.

What do you think?

Do you agree with what Chris has to say?

Let us know in the comments

Ex – Microsoft Employee Wants To Fix Windows 8 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 8 has been greeted with mixed opinions by many people, some hate the new Metro UI, other’s love it. But there’s also a lot of people who are starting to be won over slowly but surely (Our very own Mike Halsey for one). Dell along with the other OEM’s have certainly recognised the potential that Windows 8 holds, and I feel that it will do particularly well on tablets when consumers mess around with the Metro UI.

Dell also reckon that Windows 8 powered tablets will have the edge over competitors like the iPad because they will support the likes of Microsoft Office as well as the ability to connect to secure corporate networks. All while retaining full Windows functionality that they are all familiar with.

Dell’s CEO Michael Dell was speaking with Bloomberg about how there is growing demand for a tablet that runs Windows to compete with the iPad. He said that they are hard at work developing business friendly tablets that will go on sale the “exact same day” that Windows 8 will hit the market. (Unfortunately he was careful enough not to let a release date slip, then again he probably knows as much as us)

Apple have certainly been making ground into the business sector with the iPad over recent years and this is normally where Microsoft excels. Luckily for them there was no new stand out feature in the latest iPad so it gives Microsoft a chance to finally fight back and get some proper tablets on the market to compete with Apple.

Dell are looking to “lead the market” with Windows 8 powered tablets. It’s certainly going to be a tough battle, and Dell will have to come out with some seriously good devices, but it is possible.

Dell Working On A Windows 8 Tablet For Business was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting pretty excited to finally get my hands on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, hopefully on the 29th of February when Microsoft has promised to unveil it at MWC. However I’m not entirely sure what to expect if I’m perfectly honest. I never got hold of a developer preview edition of Windows 7, so I only had experience with the Beta’s and Release Candidates. As I’m sure many of you may remember, the beta of Windows 7 was extremely stable which is why Microsoft were able to bring out a Release Candidate and ship Windows 7 earlier than expected.

With Windows 8 it’s a new experience for me. I have had a chance to play around with the developer preview of Windows 8, and while I was slightly impressed by the new Metro UI, I haven’t been completely blown away by the whole experience as I was with Windows 7. I haven’t really used the Windows 8 developer preview OS for a while now as I didn’t see much point in it, and it kept causing trouble for me.

However I’m hoping that this first consumer preview of Windows 8 will be similar to the beta build we had for Windows 7. In regards that it actually runs smoothly and doesn’t crash every time it feels like it. When I bought my laptop it was running Windows Vista, the first thing I did was reformat it and install the Windows 7 beta and later the Release Candidate as my primary OS, that’s how stable they were.

Now you can be sure I won’t be formatting my laptop again for Windows 8, but I certainly will be dual booting Windows 8 with Windows 7. Of course I’ll have to make myself familiar with Windows 8 so I can get a good opinion of it as well as a few guides together for you guys.

But what’s going to be different in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview vs the Developer Preview?

Skydrive:

Martin recently covered a story of who Windows 8 is going to be closely integrated with SkyDrive. We didn’t really see this in the Developer Preview of Windows 8 so this will certainly be something new to the Consumer Preview. Be sure to check out his post for more info on that

New Logo:

As most of you probably know by now, Microsoft have come up with a completely new logo for Windows 8. This new logo has been designed to reflect the new Metro UI that Windows 8 is bringing. It’s rather simple but will also change colour depending on your colour scheme and set up.

This new logo I’m sure will be in the consumer preview of Windows 8 as it wasn’t unveiled until earlier on this week

Mouse and Keyboard Friendly:

Microsoft were strongly criticised over how focused Windows 8 was on touchscreen devices. Many users felt that Microsoft were just ignoring their main customer base of traditional desktop and laptop users who primarily use mice and keyboards to navigate Windows. Microsoft did promise that they were still working on integrating mice and keyboards into the Metro UI so hopefully this will remain true.

There’s a few other little things that we know Microsoft have been working on since the developer preview of Windows 8.

• Metro Customisation - This is pretty limited though and will only include changing the background colour, you won’t be able to choose an image.
• New File Management Improvements
• Better Accessibility Options

Of course I’m sure Microsoft will unveil a whole load of new little bits here and there when they reveal it at MWC a week from now. Of course we’ll be covering it all here at Windows 8 News.

What else you do you expect to see that will be new in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

Let us know in the comments below

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit (x64) (English)

Download

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit (x86) (English)

Download

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This time last year the internal codename for Windows 8 at Microsoft was Windows vNext (Version Next). This is perhaps just to be considered a product codename in the same way that Windows 7 was known as Vienna (much to the annoyance of people who lived in the Austrian city) and previous editions were named after locations in the Microsoft executives favourite ski resort in Canada, Whistler, named after the ski resort that was later the location for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Longhorn which is a cafe at the resort and Blackcomb that was an early designation for Windows 7.

Anybody who asked a Microsoft staffer what vNext meant the standard reply was “the next version of Windows” but the truth probably goes much deeper than that and I can’t help but wonder if Windows Next was seriously considered for a while as a product name.

The reason behind this is that a year ago Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO, began talking about what we now know as Windows 8. He was using words like “bold” and describing it as “risky”. When September came around we realised just what he meant as the Metro interface we’d been shown previously was unveiled as the new default UI for the operating system. Windows was being reinvented, re-engineered and effectively rebranded as a new type of OS.

In this context the name Windows Next makes complete sense. If you are completely redesigning an operating system from the ground up, as Apple did with OS X, why not give it a bold new name? There are reasons to stick with Windows (version number) however. These include familiarity, people might not necessarily have known that Vista followed XP, or that Next followed 7. It is always clear that 8 follows 7 and a standard numbering system has worked very well for Microsoft Office and Windows Server for some time.

There is also the fact that many things are construed from a name. Vista for instance was very appropriately named as it was lovely to look at, but difficult to actually interact with! If Microsoft had pressed ahead and called this next release Windows Next, and it didn’t turn out to be this, or was a failure of the likes of Vista, then the company and its products could be held to ridicule… or worse. Given the way some people seem to feel about the new Metro user interface, this could well have happened.

It is interesting to think though that Microsoft could have considered the name “Windows Next” for this product. It seems very appropriate in many ways, but all things considered, Windows 8 is perhaps a choice that is more sound. It would be very interesting to hear what you think though. Do you think Microsoft could or should have called this new OS release “Windows Next” or do you think sticking with numbers is the way forward?  Why not tell us in the comments below.

Windows 8 or Windows Next? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Next week I’ll start writing not just one, but two new Windows 8 books, I’ll find the time somehow and have already booked a nice summer break to recover  :}  I always want to make my books as great and as readable as they can possibly be, so I thought I’d introduce them to you here and ask what it is that YOU want to see in them.

The Windows 8 Power Users Guide is the first commercial version of my self-published Power Users Guide series.  The book is getting a content makeover this time around and will be for enthusiasts and IT Pros who either want to find out how to use Windows 8 like the pros do, or who already are a pro and want to really unlock the power of the OS.

Windows 8 Out of the Box is a very different book for a very different market.  This book will be for complete computer newbies or non-technical people.  It will focus on the things we all actually do with our computers and work through simple and, crucially, short instructions on how to achieve the most common computing tasks.  This will include things that Windows 8 might not be able to do natively but that we use our computers for day to day.

Here at Windows7News and Windows8News you’re always full of great ideas.  Are there any areas you’d particularly like me to focus on, perhaps virtualization or deployment in the Power Users Guide or advanced photo editing or home networking in Out of the Box.  Why not let me know in the comments below and you can help shape these books to become the very best that they can be.  Thank you all 

What do you want me to include in my new Windows 8 books? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

According to numerous rumours, but not yet confirmed by Microsoft, the ubiquitous Start button will no longer be available in Windows 8 Consumer Preview, aka Windows 8 Beta.

The useful and well-known Start button, with its Windows Flag, appeared 17 years ago. It’s one of the pillars for successful computing and why on earth has it been given the flick.

The well-known blogger, Paul Thurrot, confidently states in a recent blog that the “. . . hardware button replaces the Windows button, and it will be present on all PCs and devices that come with Windows 8 preinstalled.” So can we assume that you will be able to access the Start Menu using the Windows key on all current computer keyboards?

Now, if you’ve downloaded and tried out Windows 8 Developer you’ll have come across the Orb Menu, the obvious replacement for the earlier Start Menu. While it hasn’t worked perfectly in the Preview version it has real potential. Maybe Microsoft replaced the Start Menu with the Orb Menu to break us into losing the old Start Menu. Personally I’ve not been too bothered and haven’t missed the Start Menu at all.

Other bloggers claiming to be in the know, state that Microsoft will, in an effort to appease the detractors, provide some form of access to the Start menu by hovering your mouse over the region where it once was. This method is known as using the “hot corner”.  Goodness knows what you’ll see! Will it be the “Orb” menu current in Windows 8 Preview or something else?

Is this a sop for those thousands of users, dare I say millions, currently happy with the old Start menu?

All this remains as pure speculation at this stage, so really we’ll have to wait until Windows 8 Consumer Preview is released at the end of the month. You can bet there’ll be a furore or two when it becomes available for one reason or another!

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Microsoft have now announced much more about their plans for Windows 8 running on ARM architecture including the somewhat curious decision to support the full Windows desktop, even though almost nothing can run on it.  But the fact that the desktop exists at all, and this means that it might be possible to install software that doesn’t come directly from the new Windows Store, leaves an interesting malware question mark over the platform.

So far, Windows 8 on ARM is the most malware resistant operating system on the planet!  I’ve always wanted to say that but this time it’s actually true    No malware at all exists that can infect this platform as nobody’s been able to write anything for it yet.  Thus, Windows 8 on ARM for the primary reason that it will be an embedded OS, will go on to be the most secure version of the operating system ever.  This won’t stop some forms of malware that try to trick users into giving up sensitive details, especially in the desktop version of Internet Explorer that will still support plug-ins (but ONLY ARM-encoded plug-ins I might add!) but nothing will be able to attack the operating system directly.  This will make Windows 8 on ARM just like iOS, QNX or WebOS in being malware resistant.  I’m leaving Android out of this as Google don’t monitor apps as they’re submitted and thus the platform does have a malware problem.

But this question mark over the Windows desktop and whether you will be able to install apps separately from the Windows store still needs to be answered.  What’s more another question Microsoft have yet to answer is whether Windows 8′s new in-built anti-virus software, Windows Defender, a rebadged version of Microsoft Security Essentials, will also be in the ARM version of the OS.  In theory there’s no need to ever have it, or any other anti-virus protection on the ARM platform.  With Microsoft vetting everything that comes through the Windows store, and only downloadable malware to worry about it again will be as secure as iOS, QNX and WebOS, where the majority of tablets run fine with no anti-malware protection whatsoever.

I do find it curious that Microsoft aren’t yet addressing these problems.  It’s very likely, and I will expect this, for Microsoft to say that the ARM devices will ONLY support apps and software from the Windows Store.  It’s also likely that nobody will ever release desktop software for WIndows on ARM either as the market for such programs will be too small to justify the enormous development costs.  The ARM desktop then will only ever be used for six programs.  File Explorer (formerly known as Windows Explorer), Internet Explorer (for which no plug-ins with the possible exception of Flash will ever exist) and Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (none of which in all likelihood will support VB scripts or Macros).

I’m left wondering then if Windows 8 running on ARM processors could truly be as secure as the competition.  This is Windows and Microsoft though so you can imagine why I’m having a nagging doubt.  The company’s track record with security in Windows isn’t exactly stellar.  Windows 7 with User Account Control might be a nice and secure platform to work on, but nobody in their right mind would ever consider using it without having some type of malware protection installed.  There will still be the WIndows SmartScreen protection, but will this help?  You need an active Internet Connection to use it and how effective can it be anticipating threats that don’t yet exist?

So what do you think about the security of both Windows 8 running on ARM processors and Windows 8 running on Intel?  Do you think that Microsoft will include Windows Defender with the ARM version or will people never need it at all?  Do you expect to be able to install programs on the ARM desktop, or for tablet manufacturers to begin making machines with full USB ports so you can plug pen drives into them and do exactly that?  Why not tell us in the comments below.

Will Windows 8 on ARM be Malware Resistant? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

This is a good time to think about the Microsoft’s experiment with Windows 8 Developer Preview. From what I’ve read on the web, huge numbers of interested folk downloaded and installed it in varying iterations, some in dual-boot mode and others as a straight installation. The reactions of these users varied from impressed to annoyed. The latter were frustrated with the so-called Charms (Apps to some) and its associated Charms menu (the new look Start menu), unimpressed by that the Start menu no longer allows you to shut down the operation. Others were impressed with the touch feature and the fact that you can still use the mouse and keyboard.

After a bit of digging in delving I found several ways to shut down Windows 8, these involved  keystroke combinations – see my earlier blog “Ways Means to Shutdown Windows 8 Preview“. Despite these minor disadvantages I remained impressed with the new look ribbon bar in Internet Explorer with the return of the Up button and look forward into the beta version which comes out at the end of the month.

In anticipation of this I have now with one exception, my touchscreen computer, removed all versions of Windows 8. This was a simple matter where it was installed in dual-mode but on my netbook I had to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch.

One thing I’m looking forward to is the possibility of installing Windows  8 on a 32-bit Flash drive and being able to run it in its full form on any computer. There has been a lot of discussion about this feature on the Web.

The deadline for the death of Windows 8 preview is 12th March 2012 on my remaining computer and I will regret its passing but look forward to its reincarnation .

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There’s been an awful lot of hype building up around Windows 8 and how Microsoft are looking to finally enter the tablet market properly with it. Everyone seems to have forgotten that the vast majority of people still actually use laptops and desktop PC’s, and while that trend is slightly changing, I think it’s still important to remember the current traditional way we use Windows.

Sticking to the subject of tablets though. ARM’s CEO Warren East recently spoke about how Windows 8 will have an advantage over Android when it comes to tablets once it hits the market. While Android has been an incredible success in the smartphone industry, the pick up rate hasn’t been quite as good in the tablet market. He called Android tablet sales “disappointing” .

He cited a number of reasons as to why Windows 8 will have the advantage over Android tablets:

• Microsofts Brand
  Microsoft have a big advantage over Android since everybody knows, recognises and trusts their brand. Microsoft is much better known than Android amongst the general consumer and it’s a company that everyone can relate to.

  I think we can be pretty certain that Microsoft are well aware of this fact and will probably do their very best to exploit that fact. They’d be foolish not to.

• Intel Needs To Catch Up
  While Intel may be dominating in the PC and Laptop market, the vast majority of tablets are actually running ARM processors. Intel are trying their hardest to break into the tablet market, but at the moment Android tablet manufacturers prefer the cheaper ARM alternatives. Windows 8 will support both ARM and Intel processors which will give it another slight advantage over it’s predecessor – Windows 7 which only supported Intel’s x86 architecture.

• Android Needs More Time
  Android is doing very well in general, but it’s the smartphone market where it’s currently excelling. A few years ago when Android first came to the market there was very little enthusiasm around it. However 2 years later and it had suddenly taken off.

It will be interesting to see how Windows 8 tablets are received in the market and how quickly they’ll take off, if they do of course.

What do you think? Will Windows 8 powered tablets have the advantage over Android?

Let us know in the comments below

Why Windows 8 Tablets Will Have The Edge Over Android Tablets was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsofts Kinect has certainly been popular among consumers and hackers a like. Before Microsoft announced an official Kinect SDK, hackers had already managed to get the Kinect sensor running with Windows 7. Microsoft are now also set to release a desktop version of Kinect which will go on sale from February 1st. This sensor is slightly smaller and more accurate with close range objects.

But what if you could buy a laptop with a Kinect sensor built directly into it?

Well according to the Daily, Microsoft are looking to do just that. It’s been said that Microsoft are currently testing out the Kinect technology on Asus netbooks. They appear to be running Windows 8, probably the developer preview. They have a small array of sensors covering the top of the screen where the webcam is normally found and at the bottom of the display there seems to be a set of LEDs.

The Daily is also reporting that a source at Microsoft has also confirmed that these are in fact prototype devices that Microsoft are testing out.

It would be very interesting to see what you could do with a laptop, netbook or even tablet which had Kinect sensors built into it. Not only would it make navigating through Windows a completely new experience, but it would also interact quite well with the new Metro UI in Windows 8 I reckon. Of course since Kinect is primarily used for gaming, I’m sure that it would add to the gaming experience on these devices as well.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft announce further details on this. Since they are just about the release the desktop edition of Kinect as an accessory, they probably don’t want to hurt it’s initial sales.

The chances that we’ll get to see Kinect sensors in Windows 7 powered laptops is probably pretty slim since Windows 8 is on its way, but  you never know!

Could Kinect Be Coming To Laptops? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

There is no denying that Bill Gates is one of the greatest entrepreneurs and businessmen of all time. We can all thank Bill Gates for bringing Windows to the masses and changing the way that the everyday normal consumer uses computers.

Gates was the pioneer for Windows and it was his dream to have Windows running on every computer in every home. If we look at the 90%+ market share that Windows now enjoys I think it’s fair to say that he got pretty close to that dream.

Of course Gates is also known for donating extraordinary amounts of his wealth to various charities around the world. This great infographic that I found from Frugaldad shows just how much work he’s done as well as how many lives he has saved. Interestingly enough they compare him to Batman, but this infographic is well worth looking at.

If you didn’t know the extent of the work that Bill Gates does, be sure to check it out

Source: frugaldad.com

How Bill Gates Is Better Than Batman was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

An article in Zdnet Windows 8 is a big risk to the consumer PC industry made some important points about the status of the PC industry as a whole and Windows 8 specifically. The gist is that the PC industry is in trouble, and Windows 8 may not help it recover.

“The consumer PC industry is in the doldrums, with sales down at uncomfortable levels and a near-tangible lack of enthusiasm in the air.”

Consumer Business is Down…But Enterprise Business is Up

2011 was the year of the tablet. Anyone, following this industry will tell you that. The revolutionary approach to computing with the invention of the Apps, changed how people used computing devices. Specific operations, and there were thousands of them, changed what people did with their devices. The spillover, moreover, to the smartphone market, one that didn’t even exist 10 years ago, was remarkable. This was like watching how the US changed after Edison introduced the light bulb. You can’t go back, and don’t even want to.

So yes, the PC is down, because it’s model goes back to 1975. It was time for a change. And consumers clearly saw it. They wanted computers, just not the PC.

Yet Microsoft and hundreds of other companies continue to produce software for the business market, and doing well. What that says is that the PC is not dead, but continues and will continue to have a life that will survive the tablet onslaught.

Will Windows 8 Help or Hurt?

The existing computer operating system model goes back to the days of DOS. And it has not changed. Sure enhancements occurred and it became faster, slicker, and more powerful. But even with the GUI interface, and the GUI operating system, it was still a DOS based model. Windows 8 is supposed to change that.

New boot ups, a new interface, new CPU technology is supposed to change how the computer operates. This will lead to new types of applications. And some of these changes clearly come for the tablet concept.

Will Windows 8 help or hurt? Obviously, that answer won’t be finally given until a year after it has been released and consumers and experts make their findings known. But is the PC industry dead or dying? We can say, let’s hope not, but more realistically, we can say, it isn’t.

Will Windows 8 Help or Hurt the PC market? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I have always been a fan of Windows Task Manager as it was a useful tool even in the earlier versions of Windows. Originally my main reason for using Windows Task Manager was to shut down misbehaving applications.

However in the Windows 8 Preview version there are more features worthy of comment. Some have already been dealt with by George, Martin and Robert Boland on our sister website, Windows 8 News & Tips. These hyperlinks, shown below, will take you to their take on Windows 8 Task Manager.

The Windows 8 Task Manager by George

New Task Manager In Windows 8 by Martin

Microsoft Talks About The New Windows 8 Task Manager by Robert Boland

 Quick Access to Windows Task Manager

I use the three-fingered salute – Ctrl, ALT + Del to get access to this valuable tool. This method still works with Windows 8 Developer. Of course you can use Search, either in Windows 7 or Windows 8 Developer to get access to it. Windows 7 Search in my opinion remains streets ahead of Windows 8 Developer but given it’s only a preview version, one should be patient waiting for the Beta to come out.

In Windows 8 Developer, you can get access to it by pressing Win Key + C which gets you the so-called Charms menu (not so charming in my view!). Select Search and in the Search box, type “task manager” and press the Enter key.

Back in Windows 7 press the Start button and in the Search box type “task“. Search is so good here you don’t even need to add “manager”. Pressing the Enter key opens it.

Changes to Windows Task Manager

In their development of Windows 8 Microsoft has made substantial changes to its interface.

Opening Screen

At first it displays a very basic window but in the lower section should you wish to see more details click More Details. This expands the Processes window providing all sorts of information not necessarily relevant to the average user.

Expanded View

Across the top of the expanded window are seven tabs, each one containing more information.

Perhaps the most interesting screen is the Performance Tab. This displays information about applications usage of your CPU, Memory, Disks et al.

Performance Screen

Next tab is the App History screen. Here you can see the applications running and see how much CPU they are using.

Application History

Moving on, the next tab is the Startup screen. This is one screen I find useful as I can disable any listed application by selecting it and pressing the Disable button. Of course you can also access Start Up by going through System Configuration.  Either way you can control what starts on your computer!

Start Up

And so it goes on! The Users screen displays who is using the computer, the Details screen, information on all the apps in use and the last screen, Services shows which of them are running or not in operation.

At any time you can shut down the full tabbed set by selecting Fewer Details at the bottom of each screen. This takes you back to the opening screen.

I’m sure even most of us will find the new Windows Task Manager to our liking.

My Take on Windows 8 Task Manager was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 8 is still nearly a year away from being released and we’re hoping to get a good look at it in the first public beta in about a months time. But many people who haven’t actually downloaded and installed the developer preview don’t know what’s new in Windows 8.

Well today I stumbled upon this great little infographic from thetechlabs which explains it all and makes it very easy to see the top 10 new features that are going to be in Windows 8. Personally I think some of these features aren’t necessarily worthy of a top 10 spot, but none the less it’s still a handy little infographic.

Do you agree with this list? What would you add or remove?

Let us know in the comments

Here’s the list:

1. Windows to go
2. Windows Store
3. Metro Style UI
4. Better Security
5. Internet Explorer 10
6. Faster Booting
7. Apps always on
8. Minimal Ram
9. Single Platform

Windows 8

Top Windows 8 Features Infographic was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I’ve being tinkering around the edges of Windows Developer Preview now for three months and still find different features that are attractive to use, such as the new version of Search and a new ribbon bar in Windows Explorer. These are really great innovations but I digress.

My new interest in Windows 8, given the beta version issue at the end of February (so that pundits say), is to explore the potential of a touch screen.

Over the last few weeks I’ve finally mastered the new Metro screen using the mouse, and the cursor keys for navigation. Of course, be readily available shortcut key combination, Windows Key + C gives me  immediate access to the charms menu while Windows Key + I enables me to access the Power button to get at shut down.

With my new touchscreen computer, an Asus Three-In-One, I am now able to explore “touch”.

While it has taken me a while to master this new technique, my biggest concern with this media is a dirty finger-marked screen. It requires regular cleaning.

I wonder whether developers will ever create a touchscreen that does not show finger-marks. This would be a fine addition to a well thought out operating system.

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One of the coolest things that we’ve seen come from Windows 8 is the new picture password log on feature. For those of you who don’t know, this is a new method of logging in. All the user has to do is draw a pattern and tap in a certain location and sequence to unlock their PC. It’s quite a cool feature if you ask me, however it’s been slated be some security experts.

Kenneth Weiss runs a three-factor authentication business called Universal Secure Registry and is the inventor of RSA’s SecurID token. Here’s what he had to say about it

I think it’s cute, I don’t think it’s serious security

Well that doesn’t say too much for it now then does it. Kenneth actually described it more like a Fisher-Price toy than a serious choice for secure computer access.

Read this post to find out more about the picture password

The concept is good, but from a security perspective there is some flaws. For example, if anyone sees you input the pattern it’s quite easy for them to remember. Unlike a traditional password where the pin/password that you enter is displayed as “*”, you’ll be able to see exactly what the user’s entering. Also it’s a bit of a pain trying to right down what your pattern is in case you forget it. It would have to be quite long winded to make sure that you get the pattern right.

However, because it’s so quick and simple to set one up and enter the password, I think we may find that more people will start using this. There’s plenty of people who don’t use a password what so ever so if they used this picture password it would be better than nothing wouldn’t it?

Also all you have to do is make sure that the wrong people don’t see you entering in your pattern and you should be ok. But I’d be interested to hear what you guys think of the picture password.

Is it a good feature that you will use? How secure do you think it is? What are it’s major flaws?

Let us know in the comments below

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Microsoft are forever going on about how fast IE 9 is over it’s competitors, and while it has made leaps and bounds compared to it’s predecessors, people still prefer to use alternatives like Chrome and Firefox. So just to demonstrate to you how much better IE is, Microsoft has devised a little test.

They’ve developed a web page called Let It Snow which is a HTML5 driven web app. Of course it’s very appropriate for the current holiday season but apparently it’s also a good benchmark tool for testing out how fast your preferred web browser is.

The web app has been developed with all sorts of modern web technologies in mind such as SVG, CSS, HTML5 and hardware acceleration. The whole point of it is to see how many snow flakes your browser can handle at a time. It shows the number of snowflakes and also your FPS. You’re also testing your browser to see if you can wipe away to snow to see a festive message.

Of course, with Google Chrome being my preferred browser I tried it out in that right away feeling pretty confident it would do a good job. But alas it struggled with one of the lowest settings – at 100 snowflakes I was seeing 5 FPS and as I attempted to wipe the billboard it kept staggering.

Next up I tried IE 9, and surprise surprise, on all the low levels I was getting 60 FPS and flawless performance! So then I upped it to the max setting, 4000 snowflakes. And as you can see from the screen shot above, it managed it pretty well and I was getting 22 FPS and I was able to wipe the billboard without any problems.

It’s a bit suspicious if you ask me, somehow I get the feeling this web app was made just with IE in mind…that’s only a wild guess now..

Why don’t you guys try it out and let me know how you get on, the links below

Let It Snow

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There’s been much talk over the new Windows 8 App Store that’s set to be released alongside Windows 8 sometime next year. Microsoft hasn’t given us a chance to have a proper look at it yet, just shown us a few brief demo’s. However they have released a few bits of information to us over the last few weeks. One of the biggest things we discovered is that the Windows 8 App Store will be accepting open source apps.

It also looks like the Windows 8 App Store will be a great deal for app publishers as well. For a start, Microsoft will apparently allow publishers to keep all subscription money, which is unlike Apple’s policy on their app store. What’s more, Microsoft has also undercut Apple when it comes to the percentage of revenue that they will be taking over developers. Apple currently takes 30 percent of  an apps revenue, while Microsoft will only be taking 20 percent after an app has had a net of $25,000.

Another bonus is that Microsoft will allow developers to offer time and featured limited trial software which Apple does not currently allow on its store. Microsoft will also allow developers to choose a payment option of their own as well.

We have full platform support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based trials) and paid apps, including in-app purchase…developers can also choose to manage their customer transactions directly, for example, with newspaper subscriptions, or to adopt a business model with offline fulfillment, such as for auctions,”  We don’t mandate a specific transaction engine and developers can use their own. They can also choose the ad control that works best for them.”

While some people have said that Microsoft is far too late to the game with Windows 8 and the Windows 8 App Store, there is one thing you need to remember. Over half a billion Windows 7 licenses have been sold and there’s over 1.25 billion Windows users around the globe. This dwarves the few million iPad’s that have been sold. Apple may have had a good head start in the tablet market, but with Gartner estimating that 400 million new Windows machines will be shipped next year, you can be pretty sure that a lot of them will tablets once Windows 8 is released.

Of course, the one major thing that could hold back the Windows 8 app store is that it probably won’t work on machines other than those running Windows 8. And since a lot of Windows 7 users probably will not jump to Windows 8 straight away, we could see a pretty slow pick up rate for Windows 8

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There was lots of hype coming up to Microsoft’s Build conference which was held in September this year. We knew that we would all be getting out first real look at Windows 8, but the main reason we were so excited was because it was rumoured that the first developer preview of Windows 8 would be made available to us all. Our wish came true, and every Windows enthusiast immediately started downloading it.

In fact it was so popular, that over 3 million copies of the developer preview have been downloaded to date. I think it’s fairly safe to conclude that all the people who downloaded the developer preview went and installed it, but the question is:

Are you still using the Windows 8 developer preview?

Personally, I can’t remember the last time I fired it up. I know this probably sounds bad since I’m an editor for a Windows 8 website, but bare with me.

When I first downloaded the developer preview, I immediately installed it in a virtual machine (see my guide here on how to do that). Of course I played around with it for a few days but I quickly got bored. First off, because I was running it in a virtual machine, the performance wasn’t that great and secondly because my laptop doesn’t have a touchscreen to take advantage of the Metro UI.

I got fed up with the slow response times and really just left it at that. I’d had a look around the menus and tried to launch a few of the apps, but a lot of things kept crashing on me. I really wasn’t too bothered with it.

At the moment the Windows 8 developer preview is sitting idle in a virtual machine on my hard drive, and to be honest it will probably stay there until the Windows 8 beta comes out. I think the developer previews are good for getting an idea of what the OS will be like, but it’s not until the beta builds and release candidates that it’s actually worth using them. Microsoft have said that there’s a lot of changes to come between now and the Windows 8 beta.

I’ll probably start dual booting my system with the beta builds and definitely with the release candidates when they come out. But until then I’ll be sticking with good old Windows 7.

What about any of you guys? Are any of you actively using the Windows 8 developer preview these days?

Let us know in the comments

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While many folk are commenting favourably about the return of the Up button to Windows Explorer’s interface and thus certainly was a step in the right direction of improving user access,  I am yet to read any observations about the New Search features available in the updated Windows Explorer that not sports the ribbon.

While I have been an avid fan of the Search feature in Windows 7, considering it unequalled, I decided to check it out in Windows 8 Preview. I was pleasantly surprised especially when I checked it out in Ribbon Explorer or Windows Explorer.

Search tends to “hide its light under a bushel” as it is not evident when you open the Ribbon version of Windows Explorer.

Query: Why is this valuable tool secluded away and not permanently located on the Menu bar? Was this an oversight or did Microsoft have a sound reason to hide it away?

Search Ribbon Bar

The Ribbon Bar of the new Windows Explorer displays these four menus – File, Home, Share and View. Under the tool buttons on the right-hand corner is the Search box. No actual input is required other than a click, to turn Search on. The Search Ribbon bar opens.

When the Search ribbon opens you’ll see there are four sections – Location, Refine, Options and Close. Here all types of searches available, everywhere within your computer. You can select the location – Computer, Current Folder, All sub-folders and Search again elsewhere. This even includes the option to search websites on the Internet.

Location! Location!

Windows 8’s Search offers you plenty of locations to look for those missing files. All are easily accessible from within the Location box.

As soon as you switch location say from Computer to Libraries, the Search ribbon closes requiring you to click the Search box to start it again. Then you can recommence you search for the file you’ve lost.

If you are unhappy with the search results, select the Search again in command. This opens up four other places including Homegroup, Libraries, Internet and File History. Windows 8 leaves no stone unturned in its search.

The latter is perhaps one of the best places to look for missing files as Windows stores information about all the files you have created. You be pleased to know that while you are located in the File History window you can perform a new search by typing in a new word in the Search box. Now isn’t that handy!

Refining Your Search

In Refine section there are four more options, allowing you to search by Date, Kind, Size and Other properties. Select the appropriate box and choose the feature. Having done that type in the file name in the Search box and Windows 8 will look for your file.

Options and More Options

Once you activate Search, the Options section provides additional choices. Here you can access Recent Searches. All previous searches are listed here and if the list becomes too large you have the option of Clearing Search History.

The Advanced Options box also offers partial matches so you don’t have to be too specific as well places you can search in non-indexed locations.

Once you complete a Search and find that file, you have the option of saving it. It is just a matter of clicking Save search.

Finally, the Open File location feature is also available for any found file. This is a great time saver for those of us who lose track of important files.

Once you select the object within in the Search results box, you have two additional options – Saving the Search and Opening the File location. These are very useful choices.

Finally, you can shut Search Down just by pressing the Close button.

Conclusion: I find the new Search a  powerful and useful tool, greatly improved from the earlier version in Windows 7.  It is well worth the time checking it out!

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Under the regime imposed by Windows 8 there are two ways you can Search your computer. You can use the new Metro UI environment calling up the Charms menu or alternatively, and this is far better, search using through Windows Explorer. More of that in a later article where I’ll investigate the new Search features of Windows Explorer.

Like its predecessor in Windows 7 the new Search is pretty powerful and searching using Charms menu is mostly satisfactory.

A note about Charms: In an earlier article on Windows 8 Preview I queried Microsoft’s usage of the term “Charms” to describe the menu in the Metro UI interface. Since then I have found the answer. On this website www.neowin.net/news/ the explanation is as follows: “Microsoft describes “charms” as the menu of icons and commands invoked by flicking from the right edge on tablets . . .” I still reckon this is a weird name for it. Some users find no charm in it at all!

Searching using the Charms menu

The Charms menu is not always readily accessible. Usually you can get the it by pressing the Windows key but if this fails press Win Key + C.

Once the Charms Menu pops up, select Search. Search opens, displaying a list of locations where you can search. They are Apps, Settings, Files and Internet Explorer. Searching in the latter is a new and interesting way to find information on the Web. When Windows 8 Beta arrives, I’m sure you will be able to search for Apps in Microsoft’s App shop. Who knows!

Searching Apps

These are my observations about using the Search feature within the Metro UI. Search worked fine for Apps displaying all of them listed alphabetically. Pressing the Esc key closes the Search box on the right and displays all available Apps in full screen view. 

To find a specific App on this extensive list, use the mouse to access the scroll bar on the lower part of your screen. If you are fortunate to have a touch screen, flick to move across the list.

 Next, I decided to look for a specific App, Paint. In the search box as soon as I typed paint, I immediately got a result displaying the  Paint’s icon.

Tip! Search is useful if you have heaps of Apps loaded and haven’t bothered to add them to the Metro UI screen or to pin them to the Taskbar in Windows Explorer.

To do so, right-click on the App icon you want. A toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen containing two buttons – Advanced and Pin. Selecting Advanced displays four options including one to pin the App to the Taskbar. If you choose Pin this adds the App to the Apps listed in Metro UI.

Back in the Metro screen you can unpin any App at any time by right clicking it and selecting Unpin. The other options include making the App smaller or larger!

Searching Settings

Settings cover a wide range of topics about various Windows features. I used it to find out information on Homegroup. When I typed in Homegroup I received some useful information about it including Trouble Shooters. To open one, simply click on the item.

Searching Files

When I first tried Search in Files I thought I’d be clever and see if I could find all my “doc” files. I typed in *.doc and clicked the magnifying icon. This drew a blank. Next I tried *.jpg. Same result!

Desperate I tried an individual name, “Charms” and finally got a result. This included a range of files, docx files,  jpg etc. It was rather a hit and miss affair. There appears to be a bug in this aspect of Search.

Thinking back on my efforts I realised I should have been more patient to give Windows 8 time to find the files. It is certainly slow!

Searching the Internet

Within the Search menu is an options to search the Internet. I tried it out typing “charms” in the Search box. Internet Explorer opened displaying numerous topics on my chosen subject.

Now this is really neat as you can be working away in various projects, decide you want that bit of information and quickly grab stuff from the Web.

Conclusions: Microsoft obviously still have to sort out “bugs” when searching for Files but in my case it may have been just bad luck. It would be interesting to hear other user’s experiences when searching for files.

Given the imminent and advertised release  of Windows 8 Beta for February 2012 I’m hopeful all will be running smoothly.

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Within the Windows 8’s Control Panel, under System and Security are two new tools, Refresh and Reset. The former, Refresh, allows you to completely re-store Windows 8 Developer Preview to its original state including all your files. The latter, Reset, is useful if you are disposing of your computer as it removes your files and applications..

Metro Controller

I read Robert Boland’s article – “How to: Disable Windows 8 Metro UI and Ribbon UI” (9^th September, 2011) on www.windows8news.com. In it he describes Metro Controller, a useful tool allowing you to disable unwanted Metro features in Windows 8. It can help you take some of the annoyance out of Windows 8.

Metro Controller options

Personally, I’m quite happy with Windows 8 as it is, but I wanted to disable the new Metro ribbon interface. Once I downloaded Metro Controller and installed the application, I selected the second option, “Disable only Metro features”.  The UAC intervened as usual, so I clicked Yes. Next, I was asked to re-boot Windows 8 which I did. After going through the logging in process I was presented with the Ribbon Explorer.

Gone were the Metro features! My screen displayed the conventional Desktop including the ubiquitous Start button. Clicking it displayed the conventional Start menu from the earlier Windows 7. In addition, all my Taskbar shortcuts were still available on the Taskbar.

To all intents and purposes it all looked just like Windows 7, except for Windows Developer Preview identified in the lower right-hand corner of the Desktop screen.

Windows 8 Developer Preview - Desktop View

So far so good! I was able to enjoy being back in familiar territory with the extra bonus of having the Ribbon Menu available when I accessed Windows Explorer.

Restoring Windows 8 Developer Preview

Though the Metro interface takes a bit of getting used to, I don’t really mind it, but I wondered how I could get it back. This was when I came across a new Windows 8 feature, Refresh, in the Control Panel. The other option is Reset. The second option “Reset” is much the same as “Return your computer to factory condition” in Windows 7.

To get to these options, open the Control Panel and scroll down to More Settings. This opens the more conventional view of the Control Panel, aka Windows 7 et al.

Accessing More Settings in Control Panel

Accessing Refresh

When Control Panel opens, select System and Security followed by “Restore your computer to an earlier time” and then Refresh. (See illustration for sequence)

Accessing Refresh feature

Refresh is a handy tool, allowing you to restore everything the way it was, well not everything as all your installed applications and settings outside the original Windows 8 installation are lost. This is just a small price to pay for getting things back to normal. As you can see in the next section at least Windows 8 advises you about the removed applications.

Removed Apps List

When you have refreshed your installation of Windows 8 and restarted your computer, Windows 8 displays an Internet Explorer icon, called Removed Apps, on your Desktop. This can be handy as it provides a useful list when you decide to re-install your favourite missing applications .

Apps Removed List

Note: A similar feature under Advanced Recovery Method is available in Windows 7. In Windows 7, there are two options – “Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer” AND “Return your computer to factory condition.” The Windows 8 version is more advanced.

Windows 7 Options

The first option states categorically “If you have created a system image, . . .” If you haven’t done this in advance you are stuck!Now this is where Windows 8 steps into the breach and provides you with its better updated tool, Refresh.
The second option requires you to have recovery disk from your computer’s manufacturer.  If you haven’t got this or made one early on, you are also stuck.

Windows 8 Reset saves the day. Its big plus is that all your files – photos, music clips etc. remain intact!  I have found Reset a useful tool  though it was slow to complete its task.

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I have been checking out different ways to shutdown Windows 8 given the old method of clicking the Start Button and selecting Shut down is no longer available. There are three ways you can do it!

Method 1

This method works when you are in the Metro Screen as well as working with Windows Explorer (Desktop). Here you use the old three finger salute – Ctrl +Alt then press Del. This opens Security Dialog window (Windows 8 Version). In the bottom right-hand corner hover the mouse pointer over the small icon (see illustration). A pop-up command, Shut Down, appears. Click on it and Windows 8 will shut down.

Method 2

This method also works you are in the Metro Screen as well as working with Windows Explorer (Desktop). There are two approaches here. The first is perhaps the simplest. Here you press this key combo – Win Key + I. This opens Windows 8’s Settings. Click the Power icon and select Shut down. Windows 8 then closes.

The second method is to open the Charms menu (Win Key + C) and select Settings. This displays the all-important Power button. Clicking it opens a small menu with the command, Shut down available.

 Method 3

This method works when in Windows Explorer (Desktop). Of the three methods it is the quickest and simplest way to shutdown Windows 8.

Press Alt + F4. This opens a dialog box with Shut Down available. Just click the Ok button and Windows closes.

Previous versions of Windows provided an easy way of shutting down Windows but this new version, albeit a preview only, can be frustrating to those not in the know as to ways and means of shutting Windows 8 down. Let’s us assume with all the trenchant criticism of this aspect that Microsoft will see reason and simplify the process.

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Microsoft’s new Metro interface maybe good news for users with Touch Screens but what about those stuck with their mouse and keyboard? I’ve checked out many websites for tips for those of us still using the more traditional methods and found some useful keyboard combinations.

Here are nine useful combos.

• Start Screen – Windows Key
• Start Menu (Search, Share, Devices, Settings) – Windows Key+C
• Search – Windows Key+F
• Check Desktop – Windows Key+Y
• Activate Settings – Windows Key +I
• Show Desktop – Windows Key+D
• Open Share – Windows Key+ H
• Open Connect  - Windows Key+K
• Lock PC Windows Key+L

You can Pin/Unpin tiles or Remove apps by right clicking on tiles on the Start Screen. This opens a toolbar across the bottom of your screen displaying three icons – smaller/larger (switchable), uninstall and unpin.

Several pre-Windows 8 keyboard combinations still apply. They are:

• Use the page up and page down keys to move between tile groups on the Start Screen
• Pressing the Escape key still closes unwanted windows
• Switch between apps – Alt+Tab
• Cycle through apps – Windows Key+Tab
• Close application – Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
• Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del open the menu containing Lock this computer, Switch User, Log Off, Change Password, Start Task Manager. (I never know what the name is for this menu!)

No doubt other users have come across additional combos but these are the ones I find I use most of all.

There is one matter I feel I must mention about Windows 8, where on earth did Microsoft dig up the words “charm bar” to describe the humble Start Menu? I feel this is a bit over the top! What do you think?

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been using Windows 8 Developer Preview constantly on three computers a netbook, a laptop and a desktop. Two are in dual-boot mode and one a dedicated Windows 8 machine. All work faultlessly!

Having gotten a fair belt of experience under me I remain an ardent supporter on Windows 8’s development.

As well as putting Windows 8 through its paces, I have read copious reviews of it by commentators such as Paul Thurrot’s on www.winsupersite.com, Ed Bott and Mary J Foley on ZDNet, Ciprian Rusen’s on www.7tutorials.com, and Onuora Amobi‘s on www.windows8update.com as well as commentary by fellow writers on our associate website www.windows8news.com.

All commentators speak highly of its development and, while analysing its new features objectively, stress it is only a Preview.

While I certainly am not rapt in the Metro shell and the emphasis on the touch screen, I find I am able to overcome this alleged disadvantage, by navigating using the mouse and the keyboard effectively.

One gripe by many readers of the above bloggers is the apparent inaccessibility of the Start menu. This is easily overcome by pressing the Windows key + C. This works faultlessly.

Similarly, there are concerns about access to Shut Down. Access to this is by using the Windows key + I. This opens the Settings menu and clicking the Power icon displays a small menu containing Shutdown and Restart.

Once you know these keystrokes, and there are others too, you have Windows 8 firmly under your control.

One complaint regularly brought up is the “green” screen for the Metro tablets. What a lot of fuss about nothing! For heaven’s sake this is a preview only and the average Joe will be happy to try it out before the beta version arrives. Be thankful for small mercies!

Having said all that, I remain well-pleased with Windows 8 Developer Preview and when Microsoft release the beta version I  will be happy to retain my connection with an exciting and different operating system.

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I know there has been mixed reactions for the tech community over Windows 8, but for the most part it has been pretty good. Since it’s still so early in it’s development stage there’s no point in making a decision on it just yet, but Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini seems to be over the moon with the developments Microsoft has made with Windows 8. He called it “one of the best things that’s ever happened to our company”, now that’s a pretty bold claim.

There’s been a couple of myths and rumours floating around that Windows 8 won’t be great for Intel since apparently they can’t make mobile chips very well. But Paul threw these rumours aside and had this to say about Windows 8.

We are very excited about Windows 8. I think it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to our Company. And it’s a very good operating system, not just for PCs, but we think also will allow tablets to really get a legitimacy into mainstream computing, particularly in enterprises that they don’t have today. A lot of the enterprise managers are worried about security, they’re worried about the difficulty affording their legacy applications over to an Android tablet or to an iPad.

He emphasized how the new development environment that Microsoft had developed Windows 8 on, makes it much easier to develop apps for the new Metro UI and since you can flip back to the current Windows UI seamlessly, it’s very easy to keep applications and drivers backward compatible.

What Microsoft is doing is making that seamless for them. And they have a new experience, which they call Metro, that’s the interface up there. But for Intel-based machines, there is also one button that basically takes you back to your classic Windows experience and that’s a software button essentially.

So you’re just running one manifestation of the operating system with two different GUIs, if you will, it’s not running on virtual machines, it’s one manifestation. So this gives us, x86, in particular, I think a unique advantage as Windows 8 comes to market, because we can take advantage of all the legacy that was ever written, and all of the fact that all the drivers for the mice and for printers and every other USB device in the world. For example, getting photos off your camera and onto a tablet.

Because all these tablets running Windows 8 that pretty much every manufacturer under the sun has promised us will be running the core Windows operating system alongside the slick Metro user interface, it means that everything will work just as it does on a normal Windows PC, ensuring backwards compatibility with pretty much everything.

Intel say that the PC has become stale, but that the industry is working to fix that problem. The range of Ultrabooks which are thinner,sleeker,faster and more responsive than PC’s with brilliant battery life and decent pricing are part of that movement.

Source:

Zdnet

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Microsoft’s SkyDrive service has been with us for some time now and it’s been tweaked here and there, and integrated with Hotmail, Live Mesh and the company’s Office Web Apps.  As a technology though it’s still fairly immature.  Part of the reason for this is that Microsoft are currently unwilling to open up the entire storage space to people for free via Live Mesh, so that entire documents, pictures and music libraries can be stored and backed up in the cloud for free.  The reason that Live Mesh can only use 5Gb of the 25Gb on offer is because once files are uploaded to the cloud Microsoft will have to maintain theme there, even if people never access them again.  Many people would try the service out and then decide not to use it any more, this is perfectly normal and a scenario that every cloud services company faces.  With Microsoft’s enormous user-base however the problem would be tens if not hundreds times worse than it is for Dropbox or Mozy.

SkyDrive remains a fairly limited service however as, while Microsoft will be building Live Mesh support into Windows 8, they won’t be giving people more storage space than the 5Gb already available.  For access to the remaining 20Gb of free space users will still need to go to the clunky SkyDrive web interface and drop individual files in one at a time; this is hardly an incentive to use the service and perhaps this is the entire point.

But what other uses could this 20Gb of free space be put to?  Anybody who has used the Outlook Connector to synchronise their Hotmail account with the desktop software will know that it can take many hours for the software to synchronise fully.  The problem is caused by ever-expanding volumes of sent and received email and the addition of ever-larger attachments.  I believe that Hotmail should have a switch that will automatically archive all email attachments for messages older than, say, six months into SkyDrive, replacing them in the email with a link to the file.  Not only would this give people a central location for all attachments; sorted automatically into folders perhaps named after the sender, but it will prevent an already frustrating problem from getting any worse in the future.

The concept of automatic backup isn’t a bad one at all, and it’s a concept that Microsoft really should take on board properly.  Why offer up to 25Gb of free storage if you’re not going to allow people to use it?  I can’t synchronise my own files with SkyDrive as I have more than 5Gb in my documents library alone.  Many people would be prepared to pay for storage over the 25Gb and this is a business model that is already proving commercially successful.  Introducing this properly with an edition of Windows would give people considerably more peace of mind; those people that trust their data to cloud-based datacentres anyway.

It really is time now for SkyDrive to reach maturity and for users to be able to use it in a truly meaningful way.  The argument that Microsoft would just have to maintain unaccessed data in perpetuity simply isn’t good enough.  Microsoft set this system up in the first place, now they need to accept responsibility for that decision.

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With Windows 8 Microsoft are moving the goalposts in user interface design considerably and there has been much debate over the relative pros and cons of taking this approach.  With Windows 8 though if you don’t like the new Metro touch UI then you’re out of luck switching to the ‘traditional’ desktop as well.  Here the ribbon is being implemented in Windows Explorer and is being pushed throughout the operating system.

The ribbon, first introduced in Office 2007, has split opinion and many people still dislike it if they are forced to use it or not.  In fact the ribbon has been around for so long now that a great number of people who are now using it at home or at work, have decided firmly that they can’t find things, they don’t like it and that it’s not for them.  This isn’t a snap judgement on the parts of these people, this is their considered view after a great deal of use.

The people who like the ribbon, including myself, have similar arguments that they couldn’t find anything before it came along and as new interface that can standardise things across multiple operating systems, software applications and platforms, it’s a very welcome addition.

With Windows 8 though Microsoft will be fighting not against naysayers and ribbon haters but Human nature itself.  Human beings are resistant to change.  It’s in our nature.  It’s the reason why cars all have three pedals in the same place and why television news broadcasts are still structured the same as they were in the 1950s.  Bringing so much change to the table with Windows 8, with both the Metro UI and the changes to the desktop, could be a step too far for many people.

When Apple introduced the iPhone they didn’t change the traditional UI that we’ve all come to know and love too much.  Google’s Android too is a success in no small part because it isn’t changing the way we do things too much.  Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system however, good as it is, has been criticised by many people for being too different and too unlike what people expect and are used to.

The Metro UI in Windows 8, which we will still see major changes to in January, has been broadly well received though personally I’m not so keen on it.  The acid tests will be how consumers react to it and if a consumer backlash forces PC companies to continue offering Windows 7 as a downgrade option with new PCs in the way they had to with Windows XP.  The big test however will be how business reacts.  Metro will require the retraining of, let’s face it, millions of staff worldwide.  No matter how easy, simple and intuitive it may be to use, there is still a learning curve and many people will instantly shy away from something that’s such a departure from what they’ve been using for the last decade and a half.

The last time there were major changes, with Windows 95, there was similar uproar, but back then the changes weren’t anywhere near as significant as they will be this time.  Windows 8 is Microsoft’s biggest gamble and whatever happens in the next few years it is guaranteed to divide opinion and face resistance from many.

How Much Change is Too Much Change? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I’m currently planning a ‘Christmas Special’ for my ongoing webcast series.  On Tuesday December 13th I’ll be helping people in “Setting up and Configuring a New PC” because Christmas is, traditionally, a good time for the purchasing and giving of high-tech electronics.  Let’s face it, if the three wise men could have delivered unto Jesus an iPad, an all-in-one PC and an Android Smartphone they probably would have done.  But religious flippancies aside this Christmas could be a very interesting time for PC sales because it is the last chance to get a Christmas PC with Windows 7 on board.

The word about Windows 8 is now beginning to get out and setting aside the fact that January will bring a great many new features with the beta, people who are thinking about Windows 8 will have to make up their mind based on what they’ve seen in the current Developer Preview.  The fact remains here that much of what we have seen, the touch OS, the Metro interface and the one app per screen approach isn’t going to change much and some people might decide they simply don’t want to go that way.

Human beings are, after all, resistant to change.  It makes us uncomfortable which is one of the reasons why Microsoft have now had to shove the Ribbon interface into just about everything to get people to use it.  They’ve been steadily doing the same with Metro, there are references of it tracing back to Windows 7 Media Centre for example.

This means that, as word begins to get around about the changes Windows 8 will be bringing, and the worldwide press has covered Windows 8 in some depth both in the newspapers and on television, that the people who have decided that the operating system isn’t for them might be coming to realise that this time next year it’ll be Windows 8 with a new PC or nothing.

This will make this year’s Christmas PC sales period an extremely interesting one to watch as it’s possible that sales will see a jump on what is normally to be expected.  It’s also possible, and Microsoft will probably be hoping for this, that either word about Metro in Windows 8 hasn’t spread far and wide yet, that people simply don’t realise that they have only a limited time to still buy Windows 7, that people will be holding on for the significant changes promised for the beta or any combination of the three.

At the end of the day the sales figures will matter because if they do show a jump it could be something Microsoft will have to take note of and plan for.  Windows is currently locked in a “Star Trek Movies: Curse of the Odd Numbers” cycle with every other product being poorly received.  This is something they desperately need to break if they are to gain traction in the ever-booming touchscreen and tablet markets and, ultimately, if the company’s future is to be saved.

By the time sales figures are released the Windows 8 beta will already be out and feature-locked.  It will be too late by this point for Microsoft to make any significant changes if any are required to address the concerns of potential PC purchasers in 2012.  If we see a significant jump in PC sales this holiday season however, it may already be too late.

What Will Christmas 2011 Bring for Windows 7? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft is easily one of the worlds largest and most innovative companies. They invested millions and billions every single year into research and development, searching for new ways to do things, trying to work out what is going to be the next big thing. And while the late Steve Jobs was easily one of the best, if not the best person at this, Microsoft are still up there, even though many people may not realise it.

This video released by Microsoft’s Office Division is a brilliant example of Microsoft’s vision. Microsoft’s future see’s touch screens and 3D displays embedded into nearly every part of our lives. The video shows just how effortless it is to use these technologies which adapt to pretty much every single aspect of our lives. It looks like it will be nearly impossible to function without them at all.

It’s quite difficult to explain everything in the video, as a lot of it is out of this world, a lot like the stuff you see in the Iron Man movies. However in a post on the official Microsoft blog it was said that a lot of these technologies do already exist, but they haven’t reached this stage in their development as of yet.

All of the ideas in the video are based on real technology. Some of the capabilities, such as speech recognition, real time collaboration and data visualization already exist today. Others are not yet available in specific products, but represent active research and development happening at Microsoft and other companies.

I’m going to let you watch the video for yourself now so you can see for yourself what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cNdhOKwi0&eurlture=player_embedded

I think you’ll agree, it will probably take a while for technology to play such a large role in our lives, but it’s probably pretty inevitable that it will happen. When? I can’t say, but it will.

What do you think? Would you like technology like this is your life? It certainly seems to make life much easier, but when do you think it will come about?

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This is the motto which has been used by the Furphy Company of Shepparton, Victoria, Australia who created the Furphy water cart used in World War 1. It is an apt motto which maybe applies to Microsoft’s search for a decent operating system.

The motto reads as follows:

“Good, Better, Best
Never Let It Rest
Till Your Good Is Better
And Your Better – Best”

When you look at the development of Microsoft’s operating systems, even just going back to Windows XP, all their operating systems were on a roll!

Verdict: Good

 However there was one exception Windows Vista! This didn’t make many friends as it ate up computer resources, required lots of Ram and hard disk space but to cap it all off it kept intervening with the “cursed” User Account Control. Never was such a feature so loathed as this.

Verdict: Bad

Microsoft redeemed itself with the development of Windows 7 which is slowly overtaking the popular Windows XP. Windows 7 was fast, used fewer resources and was innovative in more ways than one.

Verdict: Better

Windows 8

The next operating system is still in its infancy is Windows 8. When you download and install Windows 8 Development Preview you will begin to see its potential.

You can install it on low powered computers ranging from netbooks, notebooks and desktops. It loads faster (on my netbook it took 20 seconds) than any of the previous operating system and shuts down quicker, if you know how to shut it down. At first, I didn’t but a reader of my articles soon put me straight.

1.       Press Win key + I.

2.       In the Settings window, click the Power icon.

3.       Choose Shutdown from the pop-up menu.

Verdict: Best

My verdict rating Windows 8 as best may be a little premature, as there is still an awful lot of work to be done on it. When you read comments from folk who have downloaded and installed it – Windows 8 News & Tips has lots of this information, there seems to be a lot of angst about the new Start Screen. I myself found it took a bit of getting used to. Meantime Microsoft is responding to all these complaints and maybe regretting they ever released Windows 8 Developer Preview.

So we will have to wait to see whether Windows 8 Beta resolves these issues. Meantime, I’ll hold my peace.

“Good, Better, Best!” Does this apply to Windows 8? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I’ve just arrived in Cambridge for the annual UK MVP gathering.  Here will be a wide and no doubt eclectic collection of Microsoft IT Professionals discussing the latest tech, fawning over kit at the Microsoft labs and being generally geeky with one another.  I too have come loaded with tech, all required for talks I’m giving tomorrow of course and you can see this below (though you might spot that my dog was less than impressed).  Before the event begins this evening however I’m having a quiet drink in the hotel bar and found myself pondering the whole necessity of the constant push and pressure we all feel to adopt the latest technology.

I say this because when I unpacked my luggage I pulled out of my case a Samsung Series 9 Ultraportable, a Windows 8 tablet PC, an HP Touchpad and a Dell Precision M6600 workstation laptop.  This is all very modern computing technology.  Looking around the hotel bar too there are people on sleek little netbooks and Apple laptops all beavering away.

Then I popped online and read stories asking if iPhone and iPad users had upgraded their devices to iOS 5 yet, and another story saying that 40% of Americans are looking forward to buying a Windows tablet, despite never having played with Windows 8 and probably never even having seen it.

In my loft I have a Sinclair QL, circa 1984.  This was one of the early business computers from the time when the IBM PC had still to gain traction.  It was released the day before the first Apple Macintosh and is a lovely, bespoke piece of technology from the company that brought us the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

In fact, and this is probably why I’m getting so teary-eyed about the heady days of the computing revolution, I’m sitting in the heart of where much of it began, Cambridge UK, the home of the man who invented the ARM processor and the birthplace of the home computer.

I’m very happy with my technology.  Just a single laptop these days is enough to power everything I could want or need to do.  But what is it that we actually want to do?  If you have an older computer at home, perhaps with an Intel 386 processor and a network card, already running a basic web browser and a copy of Windows 3.11 or Windows 98, do you need anything else?  If you have an iMac from the late 1990′s with the lovely transparent colour case adorning a corner of your living room, can this be perfectly sufficient?

Now I’m going to set aside the obvious security issues here but the people I’m talking about would probably do very little with their computer except for very basic email, a little light occasional browsing and writing some documents.  The technology and software companies however are always pushing us to upgrade to the latest stuff.  We must have the most recent browser for security and we need the latest hardware because it’s slim and sexy, and has the latest, best and fastest versions of the operating system pre-loaded.

In fact, if I had an old 8086 laptop with a monochrome screen and a network cable, I could probably get it online without too much hassle and write this article from the hotel bar, and it’s this that makes me sad.  In the rush to create the next shiny and spectacular big thing, we’re leaving behind some equally spectacular and thoroughly usable hardware too.  With an external network adapter and a flat screen TV I could probably use my Sinclair QL to write articles here at Windows7News, and you know what?  I may just do that!

Is the Push for the Latest Technology Really Necessary? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Now you may find this an odd title for this article but indeed it covers many things. It all started when I was sorely tempted to buy an Apple iPad 2. This came about as two members of my family regularly extolled the virtues of their iPhones and their iPads.

So began a period of reflection when I looked at my three Windows type computers and wondered whether it was time for a “sea change”. This led to a long period of investigation and ended up with me trying out one of their iPads. I was indeed impressed and sorely tempted. With the demise of Steve Jobs and the media’s recognition of his important contribution this nearly tipped me over the edge. One should not overlook Bill Gates and his contribution to the development of the PC, DOS and Windows operating systems. History may well judge him by his recent philanthropy in helping those less fortunate rather than his work with computers.

Then, in the cold light of day I made a decision. While I loved the touch screen and all its features I decided to stick with what I knew. I was happy and comfortable with PCs. So, no iPad for me!

Now let me tell you about my current crop of PCs. I have a desktop, a notebook and a netbook. All are no longer than three years old. The desktop and the notepad have dual –core processors, 4 Gb of Ram and work superbly with Dragon Naturally Speaking et al. The netbook, the most recent edition — it’s only two years old — has an Intel Atom N280 CPU (now superseded) and 2 Gb of Ram. Compared with the other two PCs it is a bit sluggish but never-the-less fills my requirements when I travel away from home. Its small size and portability makes up for its lesser specifications. Some could well say why not take a break and leave the computer home and this is the advice I often hear from my partner who feels I spend too much time on the computer.

I digress! Well after that momentous decision of keeping clear of Apple products I decided I’d follow up my interest in the new Second Generation Intel chips. This includes the Intel Core i7, Intel Core i5 and Intel Core i3. All reports indicated these new chips are a huge leap forward in processing.

Maybe, this was the way to go – buy a new notebook with the latest chips. So, this lead to my search for that new machine.

My specifications were relatively simple – an Intel Core i5  CPU, 4Gb Ram (upgradable to 8 Gb) (Note: Dragon works even better with plenty of grunt) and a large hard drive (min. 300 Gb). Various brands were checked – ASUS, Toshiba, Medion Mikeyo (this is sold in Australia by ALDI stores), MSI and finally HP.

I settled on the latter, given four of my computers – three notebooks and one desktop have been HP/Compaq machines. Better to stick with a product that has been reliable.  

Once I made the decision I then began my search for a new notebook within my means. I settled on an HP Pavilion g series machine. The machine I chose met all my requirements – Intel Core i5 CPU, 4 Gb RAM, 640 Gb Hard Drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth et al.

Its large screen and well-resourced – three USB ports, a HDMI port (this was one feature I really wanted as I could hook my computer up to my big LCD TV screen) a card reader just to name a few.

You can see the specs of the chosen machine HP Pavilion g series, courtesy of Piriform’s Speccy. Speccy is a useful little tool for checking up the hardware on your computer. If you haven’t downloaded Speccy think about it. It is a valuable tool for checking your computer’s specification.

Speccy's Assessment

An earlier tool Belarc Advisor is also useful. This tool builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inventory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. Both Speccy and Belarc Advisor are handy information gatherers!

HP’s Support Assistant also provided me with a snapshot of the computer’s specifications. 

Specs displayed using HP Support Assistant

 Setting up my new notebook was a breeze. My next task was vital; it involved creating a set of Recovery Disks courtesy of HP’s Recovery Manager. With all software, including the  operating system pre-installed, it is essential to make a set to safeguard your computer. After this was completed – it was a slow process – I was installed my suite of favourite programs – Office 2010, Snagit, Picasa and, of course, Dragon Naturally Speaking.

My next task was to remove Norton ignoring its kind offer for a 30 day trial. In its place I installed Microsoft Security Essentials quick smart before venturing onto the Internet. When I did I got a shock as regular updates were proposed by Windows Update. In all there were 89 updates. This took some time so I left the computer to its own devices. Thus, well and truly updated, it was time to start serious use of this new machine. To say I was impressed with its features is an understatement. I am revelling in my new fast technology.

One of my first tasks was to try out Dragon. The internal microphone built into notebooks and netbooks has never been “much chop”, but in my HP it excelled itself and enabled me to use Dragon without having to wear those uncomfortable but necessary microphone headsets. There was an unexpected bonus too as the inbuilt speakers gave out reasonable sound.

Enough said!  I’ll leave it there!

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things. . .” was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Those of you who saw Microsoft demonstrate Windows 8 at their Build conference last month will know that Windows 8 uses less RAM than Windows 7. Microsoft used a low powered netbook which had just 1GB of RAM. They booted Windows 7 SP1 and the Windows 8 Developer Preview and after they had both been at idle for a while it was found that Windows 8 was using a lot less CPU and Memory compared to Windows 7. ( 5% vs 1% and 404 MB vs 281 MB)

Windows 7 was applauded for reducing the amount of memory that Windows uses, especially compared to Windows Vista but now Microsoft have gone even further with Windows 8. One of their goals was to make sure that all machines that are capable of running Windows 7, will be able to run Windows 8 without a problem. Microsoft have managed to surpass these expectations by making Windows 8 even less resource intensive.

So how do they do it? Well Microsoft went into great detail over on the Building Windows 8 blog but I’ll try and just give you some of the main points.

Windows 8 make use of a new feature known as memory combining. Basically Windows looks at system RAM use, then it finds duplicate code that could be running for a variety of reasons, it then removes these duplicates from the memory so that you only have one copy of the code running, thus freeing up memory.

The number of background process that Windows 8 uses has also been reduced by 13. This is quite a large amount and should make a big difference and increase performance.

Even the new Metro interface helps reduce memory usage, although it’s only really for tablets. When you’re using a tablet, Windows 8 won’t actually load up the desktop components for the OS because the chances are you’re not going to bother using the traditional desktop if you’re using a tablet. Of course if you do decide to switch to your desktop it will still load them up, but not running these components saves around 23MB or RAM in the developer preview edition of Windows 8.

There’s a whole host of little tricks that Microsoft are using to reduce memory usage in Windows 8 and while I’ve only touched on them, you can read into them in more detail here on their blog

Windows 8 Uses Less Memory Than Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

When Microsoft finally unveiled the Windows 8 Developer Preview edition a couple of weeks ago one of the items included with it was a built in anti-virus solution. While Microsoft does have it’s own antivirus software – Microsoft Security Essentials – it is optional for the PC user. Many people like to use other antivirus companies like Symantec and AVG. So it was interesting to hear that Microsoft are looking to ship Windows 8 with built in antivirus features. However according to a security research firm, it’s not very good at the moment.

The inbuilt antivirus software failed to detect the EICAR test virus which is a well known test to people in the security world. It’s a harmless virus but it should trigger a response immediately with antivirus systems. EICAR stands for European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research and is a string of characters which causes pretty much all antivirus programs to respond.

However ironically it was Internet Explorer which has long been seen as the weak link in Windows that detected the threat this time. When the user tried to download the EICAR test file from eicar.org using IE 10 it informed him that it was a malicious download and wouldn’t allow him to save it to the computer.

Then he pasted the 68-byte string into notepad and that should have set alarm bells ringing but it didn’t. He also tried copying it from a memory stick to the documents folder and Windows 8 yet again had no problem with it.

Even when trying to run the EICAR file it doesn’t identify it as a virus. You do get a error message though because EICAR is a DOS program and cannot execute on Windows 8, but in theory you should still get a virus warning.

The new antivirus was also tested out with sample viruses that were 6 to 12 months old and apparently Windows 8 only managed to pick up 50 percent of them. However it did successfully pick up a good few fake anti-virus samples for Mac and Windows.

I guess it’s probably still to early to make a call on this one. Windows 8 is still in its developer preview stage so I’m sure there’s still a good bit of work to be done with this. I’m sure they’re all busy at Microsoft as we speak developing it further.

Source:

nakedsecurity

Windows 8′s Built In Antivirus Still Has A Way To Go was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

For years now experts (and Microsoft) have said that one of the main reasons Windows has proven so popular is the familiarity people have with the OS (aside from other reasons such as flexibility, available software etc.) and we’ve happily accepted this as a reasonable explanation.  However, many IT Pros have also said that this is a poor and shallow excuse for foisting on users an interface that is fundamentally inappropriate for them.

The ‘traditional’ desktop of minimize, maximise and close buttons, the dragging of the outside of windows to resize them, the pull down menus were all designed for the computers of thirty years ago, when computers were used for exclusively business, academic and scientific purposes.  For the average user then most of this wasn’t appropriate.  The learning curve was too high, it was too fiddly for many users to use comfortably and for the majority of simple tasks people wanted to do; get online, check email, manage photos and communicate with people, it was simply far too much to faff around with.

When the iPad appeared people didn’t really think of it’s new iOS operating system as being one for general purpose computing, as it was designed from the ground up for tablets.  The same happened with Google’s Android OS which, while far more like a traditional ‘desktop’, was still not shipped with desktop computers.  When Google’s ChromeOS finally appeared it too conformed to the uniformity of the modern desktop as observed by every desktop operating system since the 1980′s.

Now though Windows 8 is breaking the mould.  For the first time since the modern desktop OS was invented, Microsoft are innovating with something completely new, radical and unusual.  They are the first company taking a mobile OS and translating it onto the desktop.

Now you can debate for ages the pros and cons of making such a move but I’ve now had some time to get over the initial shock and surprise and I’m coming round to the idea that what Microsoft are doing is actually a very good idea.  However in doing this they could be heading down a road where they might find themselves in trouble and losing market share.

The reason for this is that, if Windows 8 proves genuinely successful; and by this I don’t just mean raw sales, I mean people enjoying actually using it, then it will prove conclusively that it no longer matters what operating system you use.  Now all operating systems perform the same tasks is broadly the same way.  What sets them apart is how they work with applications and how they integrate with other services.  In this we can see Microsoft building their cloud ecosystem tightly into the operating system.  This is a good move as Microsoft’s cloud-based products, which include SkyDrive and Office online are much more polished and integrated than anything the competition has yet been able to offer.

So we now find ourselves at a point where the operating system has truly become something that disappears into the background, a claim Microsoft rather prematurely made for Windows 7.  Each operating system now won’t stand on it’s merits for being product X from company Y anymore, but will instead be judged on how integrated it is with other services and how well  it offers app integration too.

Windows 8 leaps ahead of the competition here by providing APIs that permit programmers to hook their applications into all manner of services for sharing and socializing, a nice move.  In doing this there can be little doubt that Windows 8 will launch as the most progressive operating system available.

But where does this leave iOS, Android and other operating systems?  I believe now we may see a push for these operating systems to begin appearing on the desktop too.  After all, if Windows 8 can completely change the Windows paradigm and people can be happy with transitioning to a new interface and a new way of working, why can’t they just as easily move to Android on the desktop or perhaps even WebOS?

Where the operating system market has opened up in the last few years is nothing to where I believe the same market will be taken in the next few years to come.  We’re heading into exciting times where the OS is simply a facilitator for the things you use.  This is the way it really ought to be.

Windows 8 conclusively proves it doesn’t matter what OS you use! was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Yesterday Robert wrote about what many of use were expecting, that Metro apps in Windows 8 would only be available through the new Windows Store.  Windows 8 will support, as we know, both the new style Metro apps and also the traditional desktop software too.  But will this dual-software approach cause confusion and division with Windows users?

It can safely be said that the new Metro apps will be predominantly used by users of Tablets and smaller form-factor computer users with touch screens.  There will be some other useful applications for Metro apps however, especially with young children, the elderly, people with learning or physical difficulties and disabilities and whole sections of society classed as computer novices.  Metro therefore can have an extremely wide reach straight out of the launch door.

It can safely be said however that all PC users, no matter of what ability, will occasionally need software of greater power and flexibility than Metro can currently offer; especially with the Ribbon interface being an odd omission from the Metro developer tools.  This software can include photo and video editing and production, disc burning and office applications, primarily a word processor and spreadsheet.

For these types of applications people will almost always need to drop back to the traditional desktop and this leaves me wondering if the differences between the two, even if the desktop is Metro’ified by the RTM release of Windows 8, won’t cause confusion and divisions with both users and programmers alike.

Who really wants to have two distinct interfaces on their computer anyway?  Most people have enough difficulty just dealing with one and the learning curve associated with having two residing side-by-side could force users to decide what they’re going to use their computer for, and to stick to just that.

This means users could decide to just use Metro and not to bother with software that drops them down to the desktop, or they could choose to avoid Metro altogether and only use the desktop for running programs.

This is where the seeds of division are planted and it could cause people to lose confidence in the platform if it is seen as too confusing and fractured.  Could the public begin to turn away from Windows in favour of other operating systems such as Android which can offer them greater simplicity while perhaps not the full power and functionality of Windows?

It also raises questions about how software developers will approach Windows from now on.  We can expect the major developers to, with very few exceptions such as the Adobe Reader, to shun Metro completely as it simply doesn’t (currently) offer the interface flexibility to run Photoshop, Vegas Pro or Cubasis.  It doesn’t even have the interface flexibility to run Microsoft Word, a very worrying prospect.

Windows users could then end up split distinctly into one of two camps and Windows 8 itself will essentially become two different products, each with its own identity; something that many people have said should have happened from the beginning.  For Windows 8 to flourish and survive in the consumer space then we will probably need to see much greater interface flexibility, I would imagine via the Ribbon UI, added to Metro.  If not, the future and popularity of Windows as a consumer platform, where people enjoy having the power to run full desktop apps, could falter.

Will Metro and Desktop Apps in Windows 8 Divide and Confuse? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

While Microsoft did just start showing off their latest operating system  ”Windows 8″ last week at their Build conference, they are still encouraging you to upgrade to Windows 7 as it’s the best path to upgrade to Windows 8 when it does come out. At the moment it looks like that will probably be sometime in mid to late 2012.

Rich Reynolds, general manager of Windows commercial marketing, revealed that Microsoft’s internal research showed that 90 per cent of companies they polled indicated that they had plans or were in the process of migrating from Windows XP or Vista, to Windows 7. Of course this isn’t really much of a surprise especially when you consider that Windows 7 was released back in 2009 and the first service pack has been released for it. Companies have had plenty of time to listen to feedback and test out the operating system for themselves and sort out any issues that they may have.

A Gartner research paper also encouraged businesses to continue with their migration to Windows 7 as planned and not to skip it and wait for Windows 8 just yet. Not only will it be much easier for the companies to then update their systems to Windows 8 if they so wish, but they need to keep their systems up to date and protected. Support for Windows XP is being phased out and will end in 2014. Now that may seem like a long way off, but that’s actually a very tight schedule for businesses to roll out a new operating system.

At the moment it looks like Windows 8 may reach the RTM stage sometime in the middle 2012. It typically takes 12-18 months for large corporations to test out a new operating system and prep themselves for the roll out. Then Windows 8 would have to be rolled out and that again will take time. So that would mean the earliest you would have large corporations updating to Windows 8 would be in late 2013, awfully close to the 2014 cut off point for XP support.

However if they just upgrade to Windows 7 now they will be covered with support for many many more years to come (Microsoft hasn’t said when support is ending) and can easily upgrade to Windows 8 in their own time.

So basically, if you’re a large corporation and are thinking of holding off on Windows 7 in favour of Windows 8, think again.

Don’t Forget About Windows 7 Just Yet was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft are set to formally unveil Windows 8 in just two days at their BUILD conference in California, but what are we expecting them to announce.  Some details of Windows 8 have already been unveiled but others are sketchy, concealed in mist so far.  So, settings aside what we actually know about the product so far, what are we expecting it to be, and what are expecting it will do for us?

The Kinect Connection

First and foremost Microsoft are pushing a new interface paradigm on the end user based primarily around the tablet / touch screen, but also the Kinect.  This is something that many people have missed so far.  A while ago now Microsoft showed off the new tablet interface, based on their Metro interface from the Zune / Windows Phone.  Most recently Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky implied that this would be the ‘default’ interface for Windows 8, with users dropping down to the traditional desktop should they want it.  No I’m going to wait and see just how true this is on Tuesday because it’s likely that the new tablet interface won’t be integrated any more deeply into Windows 8 than Media Centre currently is with Windows 7.

The exciting part of all this will be tight integration with the Kinect.  Microsoft’s biggest announcement, and probably their most impressive display on Tuesday will be this new tablet interface being operated on a standard desktop machine with a Kinect, possibly built into the bezel of a monitor.  This interface type has been sought after by geeks everywhere since Tom Cruise popularised it in Minority Report.  Microsoft have deliberately kept quiet about the Kinect integration with WIndows 8 but, you mark my words, this is will be a headline feature.

A new virtualization

Microsoft will take virtualization to the next level with Windows 8.  It’s already been leaked/announced that the Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of the OS will include the company’s Hyper-V technology.  This will allow them to completely strip away all the legacy support that has been Windows’ achiles heel in terms of security and stability problems for years.

Where this will leave home users remains to be seen, but the inclusion of Windows 7 Mode will probably rectify this.  At the moment you need the professional version of Windows 7 or above to use XP Mode.  This isn’t something that’s going to change but XP will be out of support while Windows 8 is still in it’s active product cycle.  It’s very likely then that Microsoft will use it’s Hyper-V and MinWIn technologies to provide a downloadable, and completely locked-down copy of XP Pro SP3 (possibly even SP4 just for this virtual machine).  This and Windows 7 Mode will enable them to completely strip out all the legacy support, making Windows smaller, leaner, faster and far more secure.

Will Microsoft’s Share Price Dip?

Because of just these two things, which I am convinced will be the headline announcements on Tuesday, Windows 8 will alienate a huge number of computer users who like the traditional way of doing things, perhaps don’t want a new learning curve, and especially in business will be greatly concerned about the support for their legacy programs and how any new interfaces will play with their workplace productivity.

Suffice to say Windows 8 will be bold, a statement made by Steve Ballmer over a year ago.  There is every possibility that business users will turn away in frustration, at least initially, as they see the consumerisation of Windows take hold.  There will be concessions to them which will include tight integration with Microsoft Lync and Office 365, two more inevitable features and possible integration with Skype; though Microsoft’s purchase of the company came too late in the development process this time around.  But I suspect that Microsoft’s share price will probably dip on Tuesday as businesses take a step back to assess the impact of Windows 8 on their own bottom line.  This situation will soon rectify itself though and the share price will bounce back, and even rally further as businesses realise the full potential, especially with security, of Windows 8.

Windows 8 is indeed going to be bold, and I’d love to find out just how true you think my predictions here will be.  Please feel free to comment here.

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In just a few days Windows 8 will be formally unveiled by Microsoft at their BUILD conference in California, so we’re in the final few days of Windows 7 being top dog.  Yesterday in part 1 of this article series I wrote about how Windows 7 had reversed Microsoft’s fortunes and only a single year after its release, had silenced all the company’s Windows critics.  It was extremely quick to sell and sold many more retail copies than any other version of Windows before it.  But what actual new features did Windows 7 bring to the table and how did it improve over XP and Vista?

In terms of improvements it was the performance tweaks that enabled the operating system to run effectively on Netbooks that was the biggest and most noticeable change in the code.  We were in the beginnings of a global economic downturn when Windows 7 was released and this software gave the owners of older PCs as way to effectively upgrade them, and even get a speed boost if they were running Vista, for less than $100.  With Windows 7, Microsoft also introduced a family pack for the first time with licences for $50 each.

The improvements to User Account Control (UAC) and the overall security of the product also helped considerably.  UAC was a nightmare for most people in Vista, asking you constantly for permission to change the time or some other minor Windows settings change.  Windows 7 was, first and foremost usable and secondly offered significant improvements in performance over its predecessor, being ‘almost’ as quick as XP on the same hardware.  Finally there were significant improvements made to software compatibility.  Where Vista wouldn’t run many XP programs, Windows 7 fixed all this and allowed software to run properly again.

But what actual features did Windows 7 bring to the table that changed things?  This is where Windows 7 fell short.  The most notable improvement was the new taskbar, an amalgam of the original task bar and the quick launch area, but with large icons that would more easily be clicked, and more interactivity with running programs.  In fact if you ask people to name a new feature in Windows 7 then most people would probably point to the taskbar.

Libraries were the next ‘major’ new feature but were they actually effective and did people use them?  The idea behind libraries was to encourage people to add meta-data to all their files, documents, pictures, music and video.  For those people that did, including myself which took me several weeks on and off, the libraries were moderately useful, especially with organising and viewing photographs.  For everyone else though you’d probably never notice a single difference from the way you used Windows Explorer in XP or Vista.  This was because Microsoft completely failed to offer any significant tools and utilities for adding metadata to files.  Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 added some useful tools, but did people actually want to use them?

It was a similar story with all the other ‘new’ features in Windows 7 too.  Several stand out as being extremely useful such as Aero Snap, but how many are actually used in day to day life?  Windows 7 offered significant improvements over its predecessor when it came to performance, but very little in terms of actual new features.

One area where there were significant improvements however was in touch, with Windows 7 being the first multi-touch version of the operating system.  I know that Windows 7 is pretty useless on a tablet (I’ve got one) but without the tablet improvements that Microsoft made we most likely wouldn’t have a single Windows 7 tablet right now and the future for Windows 8 might have been very different.  For instance Microsoft may have decided to pull out of the tablet market altogether and focus on the desktop.  Windows 8 will be very tablet-oriented and so the tablet functionality added to Windows 7, while woefully inadequate in itself, has helped lead the way forward.

It would be very interesting to hear your own views on the new features in Windows 7, what you use and how you feel about the product.

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In just a few short days at the BUILD conference in California, Microsoft will finally take the wraps off Windows 8 and we’ll see exactly what they’re going to offer us for a desktop operating system over the next three years.  This means that we’re in the final few days of Windows 7 being ‘top dog’, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a look back over the operating system.

Tomorrow I’ll look at all the new features that Windows 7 introduced and try to examine the impact they have had on the end-user experience, especially on tablet devices.  Today though let’s look at what Windows 7 did for Microsoft.

When Windows 7 went on sale in October 2009 Microsoft was deeply unpopular and Windows’ name was mud.  This was all down to the hugely buggy Windows Vista, Microsoft biggest operating system mistake since Windows Me (which was so awful it didn’t even get a mention in the list of ‘great operating systems’ Steve Ballmer detailed at the Windows 7 launch [little geek factoid that])

Vista was very slow, required the fastest and finest hardware to run properly and features such as the new User Account Control were extremely annoying, with a great many users simply giving up and switching it off.

It was clear that Windows 7 had a mountain to climb and this was demonstrated right through the beta process where, despite great reviews, Microsoft had to constantly and very publicly reassure people that the performance issues with Vista had all been fixed.

It can safely be said that by the end of 2009, and the launch of Windows 7 many people were worried the product would sell at all.  Too many people around the world could be heard regularly slating Microsoft and saying they would be sticking with XP because ‘it works’ and expressing no interest whatsoever because Windows 7 was ‘bound to be just as bad’.

Sales in the early days of Windows 7 were extremely strong however and it has sold more retail copies than any other version of the OS before it, something even Microsoft can’t explain.  The strange thing was that, while in October 2009 you couldn’t talk to anybody about Windows and Microsoft without hearing derisory comments, only a year later at the end of 2010 people’s opinions had completely changed.

With Windows 7 Microsoft had pulled off possibly the greatest public relations coup in computing history.  Sure, by this time people were still saying they would be sticking with XP but the ghosts of Vista had been completely vanquished, much to the great surprise of many people.

By the end of Windows 7′s second year XP has been effectively vanquished as well.  Fewer people than ever before are using it as people are moving to Windows 7, and the number of people saying they’d be sticking with XP dropped from a torrent to a whisper.  In less than two years Microsoft had elevated Windows 7 to the king of all operating systems, with a few security researchers even claiming it was more stable and secure than OS X.

There is no doubt currently that Windows 7 is the desktop operating system of choice for most people, but during its life a new threat emerged, that of the tablet and rise of other operating systems, most notably Google’s Android.

These challengers proved effectively that people no longer needed ‘familiarity’ with the operating system, if it was intuitive enough and tailored to their needs.  As a result Windows 7 will very probably be the last generation with the ‘traditional’ Windows desktop taking prominence.  This could give Windows 7 some longevity and, even though Microsoft’s accountants and shareholders would be upset by this, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

Windows 7 has legs.  It’s secure, stable and this time, if people say “I’ll be sticking with Windows 7″ the answer from IT professionals should be to say fair enough.  Windows 7, not just for it’s features, which I’ll look at tomorrow, but for the good will and generosity it created, is a monumental achievement.

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According to the boss at Nvidia, there is every possibility that Windows Phone apps could well run on Microsoft’s next operating system- Windows 8. I think you’ll agree with me and say that that’s very good news not only for app-makers but also for Windows Phone itself.

Even Microsoft know that Windows Phone 7 is going to have to fight pretty hard if it want’s to gain any traction in the smartphone world. At the moment it’s only hanging in there at around 2% of the market, while Android and iOS are battling it out for the top spot. One of the main reasons why Windows Phone 7 is struggling is because of its lack of apps, and because of that lack of apps less people are adopting these devices. Since less people are using these devices, app-makers aren’t really bothered to develop new apps. This vicious circle is a right headache for any company.

But just imagine if Microsoft included support for Windows Phone apps directly in Windows 8. This would immediately open up the size of the market available to developers, especially when you consider that there’s around 400 million Windows licenses sold every year. This would see a huge increase in the number of apps being developed for Windows Phone 7 and as a result you’ll undoubtedly see an increase in Windows Phone 7 devices being sold.

So would it be possible to bring these apps to the Windows 8 desktop?  Personally I think it will. First off, we already know that Windows 8 will have an app store and I’d like to think that Microsoft will take advantage of the apps already developed for the Windows Phone platform, rather than going and developing another new platform to annoy developers.

Secondly Microsoft have said in the past that they’d like to bring desktop and mobile software into one at some stage. Apple are also aiming this way, just look at how close their operating systems have become. If Microsoft can bring Windows Phone apps to Windows 8 it will give them a head start on Apple and put them in front.

Finally, Nvidia’s CEO pointed out that applications developed for Windows Phone 7 would happily run on Windows 8 once it’s running on an ARM core as Windows Phone 7 apps are developed using Silverlight and XNA. Also if you look at the Tablet UI that Microsoft unveiled for Windows 8, it’s quite obvious that it’s derived from Windows Phone.

So we’ll just have to wait and see, but I think it would make sense for Microsoft to bring support to Windows 8 for Windows Phone 7 Apps. What do you guys think?

Let us know in the comments below

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We’ve already been given several glimpses at the new tablet UI for Windows 8 and we hope to get our first proper good look at Windows 8 later on this month at Microsoft’s Build conference. Now of course the tablet UI is more of a skin over the current Windows desktop which we are already familiar with. At the moment it looks like users will be able to switch between the regular Windows 8 Desktop which has had a few tweaks made to it and the new Tablet UI which is more finger friendly and specifically designed for touch.

Now personally I think that Microsoft have done a pretty good job with this new Tablet UI. I think it’s quite aesthetically pleasing from what I’ve seen and it looks like it certainly will be more finger friendly. But today I was wondering : Will Microsoft offer different skins for this new Tablet UI?

Windows users love to customise their desktop experience. There is countless themes available for Windows 7 and we are already working on getting a collection of Windows 8 themes and wallpapers together for you here at Windows8news. But I wonder, will we have to add a Tablet UI Skin section soon?

I think it would be pretty cool if Microsoft built in support for changing the skin and theme of the Tablet UI. I don’t see why they wouldn’t because it people are already used to being able to customise the desktop, so why not the tablet interface? It should be pretty straightforward for them to do it but we haven’t heard any mention of it yet to date.

In the past Microsoft didn’t really give us much of an option when it came to customising our desktops ( Windows XP ) but Windows Vista and certainly Windows 7 have become much easier to customise with themes and wallpapers.

Of course even if Microsoft don’t build in support for changing the Tablet UI skin or theme, we can be fairly certain that the Windows hacking community will definitely find a way to customise it at the end of the day!

So what do you think – Will Microsoft build in support for changing the Tablet UI skin or will the hackers have to work their magic and do it instead?

Let us know in the comments

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We now know that Microsoft will be introducing an app store with Windows 8 and will indeed be the last of the major operating system companies to offer this, with Apple having joined the party earlier this year and GNU/Linux having had an app store since the time Stonehenge was built.  What will it be like though and will companies actually want to use it?  Here I thought I’d chew over some of the pros and cons of having an app store built into Windows at a time when you can still install software the traditional way, you know, from discs and things.

The Pros

On the face of things, the inclusion of an app store in Windows is, not only long overdue, but also a fantastic new way for people to find and distribute software.  For over a decade now the primary software website has been downloads.com from Cnet.  This is a tried and trusted resource that millions of people have learned to trust.  This is very important because the Internet is now so big, and malware is so prevalent that people need trustworthy websites through which they can distribute their software.

If you look at games patches and even software from the major companies, Adobe, Microsoft and the like, you’ll find it all hosted on Cnet.  Part of this will be Cnet wanting to bring in more advertising revenue from the site, fair enough on that score, but there will be an element of software houses placing the software there themselves.

They know that people trust Cnet and even smaller software companies with their own merchant services on their own website will be aware that visiting an unknown website may in itself, be enough to put off a download or a software purchase.

Then there’s accessibility.  One of the reasons downloads.com, and other similar websites, have been so successful in the past is because of their ability to aggregate millions of software packages in a helpful way.  There are reviews, star ratings and these websites can make it considerably easier for you to find the software you need, that does the job you want, at the price you need.

Both of these are what an app store will bring to Windows.  They will give users of not just Windows 8, but Windows 7 and Vista as well, quick and easy access to a trusted location where malware is filtered out and where the right software can be found, downloaded and installed.  For consumers this is a huge plus and for software houses, especially smaller software houses, this will be a huge bonus for them in trying to get the word out that their software even exists.

Cons

It’s not all good news though and much of the success of the new Windows app store will depend on how Microsoft choose to manage it.  The standard app store model was created by Apple, who are frequently criticised for creaming a whopping 30% off the top of a sale.  This criticism has stopped them from doing so however and neither has it stopped Microsoft from doing the same with the Windows Phone store.  It’s just accepted now that this practice, no matter how irritating and seemingly greedy it may be, is the accepted way of doing things and the price we have to pay.

This will inevitably mean that the big companies stay away.  Sure, all of Microsoft’s software will be sold through it and the fact that every other company can submit software if they want to will protect the company from anti-competition lawsuits.  We can be sure though that Apple, Adobe, Autodesk and companies who’s names begin with other letters of the alphabet, will all shun this app store for everything but their free basic software.  Why would they want to give up 30% of their revenue on a package they sell for $600?

On the downside the smaller software houses will have less of a choice.  There’s much less money for them to make and they need to exposure.  This means that smaller software houses will have little choice but to pay any fee.  This could mean that they have to increase the cost of their software to cover their costs or, more likely, they will be yet further squeezed in order to remain competitive.  This could force some software houses out of business if their apps don’t sell in sufficient quantities.

All in all a Windows app store is clearly six of one and half a dozen of the other.  It remains to be seen what the uptake will be, exactly what terms and conditions Microsoft apply and whether the big players also jump on board.  What do you think about a Windows app store?  Would you use it and do you even think it’s a good idea?

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Today I was getting curious as to when Microsoft would release Windows 8. I was wishing they would just hurry up and get on with it. Microsoft employ nearly 100,000 worldwide,surely it can’t take them too long to put together a new OS? Microsoft proved that they can get a good OS together in no time with Windows 7. They released that several months earlier than they had previously scheduled it. There’s plenty of people out there who are wishing that Microsoft would release Windows 8 tomorrow, so why don’t they just hurry up already and get Windows 8 out there?

Of course we know that that isn’t going to happen, but it also won’t happen this year, and probably not until well into next year. Many people want Windows 8 because they just want to play with something new, however the majority of consumers and certainly businesses are more than happy with Windows 7. They don’t want to go through all the hassle of updating their operating systems again. There’s no need to either. Windows 7 is doing pretty much everything it says on the tin and more. The vast majority of users are more than happy with it, and you know the old saying “if it ain’t broke,don’t fix it”

And that’s exactly what Microsoft are thinking as well. Let’s face it, it’s only the limited tech minority who are eager to get their hands on Windows 8 so soon. There’s always going to be a group of hardcore enthusiasts looking to get their hands on the next edition of something as soon as the current one is released. But I’m sure Microsoft have identified that their largest market is the general consumer and corporate enterprises. They know that these people aren’t shouting out looking for something new. This wasn’t the case with Vista. Everyone was complaining about it so Microsoft had to get their act together quickly and get Windows 7 out there. Now that people have it they are more than content, and so are Microsoft. It’s got constant steady growth and good stable sales figures and is closing in on finally putting Windows XP to bed. At the moment there is no real reason that Microsoft need to rush and get a new OS out there to put things right.

Or is there?

If you look at the other side of the coin there’s a different story. While Windows 7 sales figures are going strong, some enterprises are going to put off upgrading to Windows 7 in anticipation of Windows 8. It takes nearly a year for large organisations to roll out a new operating system so they might as well just wait for Windows 8 before updating all their systems. Even some consumers are thinking like this as well.

But the other main reason is because of the rapidly evolving tablet market. Apple, even with Steve Jobs gone from the helm of their ship, are still the dominant player in this market and will be for quite some time unless somebody big like Microsoft comes up with a viable option for consumers. The one thing lacking from Windows 7 is it’s tablet support – while it is there, it just isn’t good enough. A whole host of manufacturers have got plans to release Windows 8 tablets, but what’s the point in promising releases for late 2012 when we all want tablets now?

If Microsoft want to get a foothold in the tablet market before it’s too late, they need to get onto to it now. This is really the only reason why Microsoft would need to rush along Windows 8. Apple have a much higher refresh rate with their iOS operating system and it’s letting them increase their lead a bit more every day.

Personally I’d just be happy with a beta edition of Windows 8 for the moment to play around with as I’m not really into owning tablets myself. However I know plenty of you guys are itching to get Windows 8 now.

So tell me, should Microsoft rush Windows 8? If so, why? Is it not better that they take their time and do it properly to avoid another Vista disaster?

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In general, I’ve never really had to do any maintenance work on Windows 7. I’ve never had to go through my hard drive and see what’s taking up space and slowing things down. I’ve never manually had to perform a disk defragment, or even used the disk clean up tool. Windows 7 just seems to take care of itself. It pretty much does all these things automatically without you ever knowing.

But inevitably, your desktop will start to become cluttered, things get messy. You’ve new folders everywhere, shortcuts going nowhere and a bunch of old useless programs wasting unnecessary space.

Generally I’m pretty good at tidying up my desktop as I go, but this week I decided to put everything else to one side and clean up my laptop.

The first question I had to ask myself was whether or not I completely wipe my laptop and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. It wouldn’t take me too long and it would leave me with a fresh squeaky clean desktop to start fresh with.

However I eventually decided against this. Why?

Well firstly because my laptop originally ran Windows Vista when I bought it, the drivers weren’t designed for Windows 7. The vast majority of them work without any problems, but it did take me quite a while to find all the appropriate drivers, some had had new Windows 7 versions of them released, but not all of them. I didn’t particularly want to go through this process again in case some of those drivers weren’t available anymore.

Secondly I’ve a lot of programs and files, and while the majority of them are backed up, it would take too long to reinstall everything again

So instead of wiping my system what did I do?

Revo Uninstaller

I’ve used this program for ages, it’s basically an uninstaller but it does a much better job than the built in Windows uninstaller. It gives you a list of all the programs installed on your system, and allows you to run their uninstaller, then once that’s finished the program will automatically scan your system and registry for any leftover files and entries, it will then ask you if you want to remove them. This way the program you had installed isn’t leaving any leftover rubbish behind it.

(Revo used to be free and I still have that version, now it’s only available in a limited trial version and then you have to pay for it)

Organised My Folders

The libraries in Windows 7 make it much easier to organise all your files and folders. Up until recently I didn’t take full advantage of this and ended up leaving half of my folders on my desktop. So this week a spent a good hour just sorting everything out, deleting useless folders and putting everything in its place.

Now it’s much easier and quicker to find what I’m looking for and everything just looks tidier and neater.

MSCONFIG

I regularly check what’s loading at start up and slowing down my system. Go to Start -> then type MSCONFIG will allow you to see what’s starting up. I went through this yet again only to discover more start up entries that I didn’t want there.

Registry Clean

The next thing I did was clean up the registry. Most users never actually do anything to their registry, it’s all the software and programs they install that mess around with it. Overtime it becomes messy and grows enormously and can be the home to many nasty viruses. I cleaned mine up with CCleaner and as usual it found a ton of unneeded registry entries which I then got it to clean up.

CCleaner also has a couple of other tools in it to help clean up your system

CCleaner

Download

Disk Defragment

And finally, the last thing I did was run a disk defrag. I used the built in Windows defrag program for this. (Start -> Disk Defragmenter)Windows 7 automatically runs these but sometimes the schedule set up might not suit so it never gets done. I also reckoned that after messing around with so many files,folders and registry entries that things might need to be rearranged a little. ( that’s why I saved it to last ) It took about an hour to do and after that I was finished and ready to go again.

So that’s the process I followed cleaning up Windows 7 on my laptop this week. What do you guys normally do? Any suggestions for me and the rest of our readers?

Let us know in the comments below

Cleaning Up Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Although we try our best to keep readers up to date with the latest Windows 8 News, we’d like to announce that we’ve created a new Windows 8 Forum to make it easier for readers to connect with other readers and to start their own topics and discussions.

The forums are fully integrated into the site, making access easy.  To visit the forums, just click on one of the links in the header or the sidebar. Registering is just as easy – you can connect your facebook, twitter, google, wordpress, yahoo or OpenID account.  Or, you can create a fresh account with this site:

So, go on register now and join the Windows 8 Discussion.

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This morning as I booted up my laptop for another day full of research, creative writing, web design and blogging, (which inevitably will turn into yet another unproductive day spent on Facebook, Stumbleupon and the likes) I started to think… What has Windows 7 done for me? We’re coming up to it’s second anniversary soon, and I think most of us take our computers and OS’s for granted a lot of the time. Where would we be without them?

In this day and age, we can’t really imagine what it would be like to live without all the various technologies which nurse us along in our everyday lives. Some might say we could be better off. We wouldn’t be pestered by those Facebook notifications all the time. We wouldn’t be bombarded with a host of spam emails and you wouldn’t have half the world addicted to World of Warcraft. Some might dare to say that we would be more productive.

But really I find it very hard to agree with any of that. Technology has done a lot for us, more than we can ever possibly imagine. There are just some many different aspects of our lives controlled by so many different technologies that there’s no point in trying to figure out which is the most beneficial to us.

So I’m going to make it a bit easier for you all. I’m simply going to ask you: What has Windows 7 done for you?

Personally Windows 7 has had quite an impact on various different aspects of my life. I’ll explain a couple of them below so you can get an idea.

Low System Requirements

The fact that Windows 7 has very low system requirements means I was able to update one of my older Windows XP machines to Windows 7 and it was perfectly stable. I knew I was never going to be able to run Windows Vista on it but it’s more than capable at running Windows 7. This has not only saved me money on buying a new machine, but also time as it runs smoother and quicker than ever.

Reliable

It may sound rather soppy but here it goes anyway… Windows 7 is always there for me, (yes I know it doesn’t have anywhere else to go) what I mean is that I can boot up my laptop from cold and know that in a minute I’ll be browsing the web. I don’t have to worry about everything freezing and I’ve no idea what the BSOD (Blue screen of death) looks like anymore. If I just want to quickly log on to check my emails or something, Windows 7 will wake up from sleep mode in 2 or 3 seconds at the most and it’s ready to go just like that.

Increases Productivity

Not only is Windows 7 easy on the eye, but little things in it help make me more productive. The search bar in the start menu that allows me to search for and execute any command or program on the OS really saves me time. Features like Aero Snap not only look cool but they are so incredibly convenient it helps be so much more productive.

I probably could go on and on, but I won’t. Instead I’ll pass the task over to you. I’m sure you all have something that you love about Windows 7, something that has made your life that little bit easier. Even if it’s only a small little thing like the fact that the widgets on your desktop can be moved to wherever you like, I want to hear about it.

Of course I’m sure some of you have some gripes with Windows 7 and feel like it hasn’t done enough for you, but for the moment could we try and keep this post positive. I can always follow up with a second post on the negatives.

So for now, what has Windows 7 done for you?

Let us know in the comments below

What Has Windows 7 Done for you? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I got a very interesting email yesterday from multinational financial analysis firm IDC.  They wanted to ask me where I think Microsoft would be taking Windows in the next three years with regards to its software support.  After a lengthy, and very interesting, conference call to Seattle I thought I’d share my views, and predictions for Microsoft, and Windows with you today.

All Software will come from the App Store by 2015

Microsoft aren’t especially willing to share Windows user data with the wider world, it’s commercially sensitive information anyway and I suppose the company doesn’t want the public feeling that they’re snooping on them.  Many PCs voluntarily surrender valuable data though.

Part of this data will be information on where we install software from.  I’ll be willing to bet that, on the announcement of a Windows app store for Windows 8, Steve Ballmer will tell with the world that less than 5% of all software installations are made from removable media (CD, DVD, Pen Drive, USB Hard Disk etc.) and that 99% of all installed software originates from an internet download.

Nobody will argue with Microsoft bundling an app store with Windows as this is what every other company is doing, even Apple have a Mac app store now and wants all software delivered through it.  Consequently, app developers will quickly fall into line and make their products available through the new Windows Marketplace.

The benefits of this, Ballmer will say, are increased security as Microsoft will check every app submitted (they’ll also open a valuable new revenue stream for doing this, and again nobody will complain as every other company does this too) and it will greatly increase the volume of high-quality apps available to consumers as, finally, they’ll all be in one place and easily searchable.

The main reason for doing this will be to prevent the “fracturing of the Windows platform”.  As no software will exist for Windows on ARM for 2012 then it will all have to be written and compiled from scratch.  The best way to deliver content to consumers on tablets will be through an app store, so the tablet version of Windows will probably only, or at least predominantly support this.  In order to prevent Windows then being fractured into two distinct platforms, Microsoft will need to move all Windows installers into the store.  This will make sense generally and people won’t, I believe, argue with the move.

By 2015, the only place for consumers to get Windows programs will be from this one location, available via download only.  This will result in…

Windows won’t allow standalone program installations

The move to a Windows app store with Windows 8 in 2012 will give Windows software developers three years to move all their apps and software into this new cloud resource.  By 2015 with the launch of Windows 9, and the final stripping of all legacy code from the operating system, Microsoft will prevent users from installing standalone programs in Windows.

This won’t matter to people, Microsoft will say in 2014, as more than 90% of all downloads now come from it’s app store and 99% of all installed software still comes from a download.  There is no doubt that the Windows app store will be successful in this regard, but I predict that it will sign the death knell of the standalone installer.

This will be because no older 32-bit software will work in Windows 9 at all, as Microsoft have already clearly stated that Windows 8 will be the very last 32-bit version of the OS.  If you want to install this software the ‘traditional’ way you’ll be using an older copy of Windows in a VM where it will still be supported.  For all 64-bit software on Windows 9 however, “80% of it is already in the app store” they will say, pointing towards only the most popular titles and the biggest software houses, “and the rest is joining us quickly”.

Finally Microsoft will point out the security benefits of having software that’s only installable from the cloud.  “We’ve had tremendous success keeping malware off our Windows Phone and ARM tablet platforms” they will say.  This is because every app will be individually checked (for a fee) and not every development environment will be supported.

The other reason for app store only installations will be because Windows will, by Windows 9, allow only signed code to run on the platform.  That means all hardware drivers will come from Windows update and all software will need to be tested and certified by Microsoft anyway, thus making app store only distribution a no-brainer.

Business with embrace cloud-only installation

Business, Microsoft will probably say already, install 90% of their software from a Windows Server system.  For the rest, which will predominantly include small businesses who still need bespoke apps, I believe the company will build app-store support into it’s new Office 365 product.

This will mean that all companies will still be able to install whatever bespoke software they want, but it will be centrally managed by the company.  No more will individual employees be allowed to install any software on their computers at all.  This will virtually eliminate malware and corporate spyware overnight and make IT Pros very happy people.

If anything, the reasons for moving business installations away from removable media are even more compelling than they are for consumers.  There may initially appear to be far greater barriers in the way, but they’re actually only very small hurdles when you come to think of it.

By 2015 Windows will no longer be an open platform

Microsoft have built the success of Windows on the fact that anybody can develop software and hardware for it.  In the last few years though, especially with moves like driver signing the company has been gradually moving away from this.  Now many people are calling on the company to banish unsigned code from the platform completely, for stability and security reasons.  The development options for software will also be more limited, with Microsoft specifying certain tools you can use to write software for the app store.  It will still be fairly open, as the company currently is with Windows Phone, but there will be far fewer options than currently exist, all in the name of security and stability.

This, coupled with the move away from 32-bit support and the introduction of a Windows app store in 2012, gives all software and hardware companies plenty of time to prepare their products for delivery solely through Windows Update or the new Windows Marketplace.  The company’s vision of a download-only future for Windows will finally become reality.

Why will this be accepted?  Why will nobody argue with this?  Some people might say that Apple kickstarted this by popularising the app store and then bringing it to the Mac pretty much in the way I’m describing here.  Other platforms though, such as GNU/Linux have already been using this model for decades and, while they’ve not been as strict as to only allow installation from an app store, this has predominantly been driven by the need for better and more stable Internet connections.

By 2015, most of the technical barriers will have been overcome (issues with new wi-fi and ethernet drivers not withstanding).  These are my predictions for how we’ll be installing software on Windows by 2015.  It will be very interesting to hear your predictions too.

Where Microsoft will take Windows Software Installs by 2015… Predictions! was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

On Tuesday at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Andy Lees, the president of the company’s Windows Phone division talked about the company’s vision for a unified ecosystem across all it’s platforms, phone, desktop, tablet, console and television.  This has been attempted before with the original crosshairs interface for Media Centre being ported to portable media players (the precursors to the Zune) and to the Xbox.

With Metro the company has struck upon a more successful interface.  This interface began on the Zune and worked its way through tot he Xbox, Windows Phone and now is finally appearing on Windows itself.  The UI has been very well received among those who like it and broadly derided by those who don’t.  It is certainly a big move away from the traditional UI elements that are still successfully used today on other devices such as the iPhone.

Many people like the simple interface with its blocks and minimalism in the form of colours and tones.  Some though have criticised it for being “too basic” or “boring”.  The email application in Windows Phone is a good example of a Metro interface that’s garnered criticism, when other hubs in Windows Phone (such as the People hub) take the same concept and make it more colourful.

With Windows 8 this appears to be happening, on the face of things anyway, with a bit more colour and diversity being brought to the interface.  Microsoft will no doubt also be working on their next generation interface for the Xbox which will use the same basic UI.

We won’t know yet if Microsoft will want to standardise the Metro UI across all of its devices or whether they will use some common elements but all be fundamentally different to each other in the way they use those elements.  There are advantages to both.  With the former people will be very easily able to switch from one Microsoft device to another.  On the downside however it could leave all the devices looking stale, and stifle further UI innovation across those devices.

Winrumors reported Lees as saying “Our strategy is not just limited to that. We are aiming to provide coherence and consistency across the PC, the phone and the TV, particularly with Xbox. That’s through providing new types of scenarios, things like the way in which you make the user experience more common.”

Metro is still in its infancy though and more changes to the UI on all platforms will be made in the next couple of years.  If you could change Metro, what would you do with it and how would you change it.

I’ve compiled a list of questions here and it would be extremely interesting to hear your views.

• Would you have a unified interface across all Microsoft platforms and if not, why?
• Would you use Metro across platforms or would you use a different UI design?
• Would you have a unified Metro interface on the different platforms, or have each platform with its own interpretation of the core UI?
• How would you change the Metro UI on each device and why?

So what could some of these changes be?  Would you stick with squares and rectangles, would you stick with a single colour interface (Windows Phone) or move to a multi-coloured interface (Windows 8, Xbox).  Would a multi-colour interface just use primary colours (Windows or would you allow users to use any colour they liked for individual items.  Would these colours change depending on the content or would you perhaps even move away from the single-colour theme completely an use multiple-colour backgrounds, individual wallpapers, wallpaper elements or images?

Finally there are questions over whether you think the Metro UI is necessary at all or whether the more traditional ways of assembling interface elements wouldn’t be a better idea.  There’s a lot that can be changed about Metro and, as I said, it’s still early days for the UI.

How would you change Microsoft’s ‘Unified Interface’? was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.