Articles about Windows 8

There has been a lot of news recently about Surface Pro. The new tablet made quite a splash over the weekend, but the jury still is out about the real success of the launch. However, Bluestacks is interested enough to bring its wares to the new platform and carry 750,000 Android apps along.

That may sound like a nice gesture towards Microsoft, but it also represents somewhat of a dig at the company. In fact, the website launched by Bluestacks is titled Get your Apps Back. The site even has a headline -- Missing your apps on Windows 8? While a dig at the lack of apps proliferating the new Windows Store, it is also a nice little bonus for Surface Pro early-adopters and other Windows 8 users.

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Call me stupid. Someone typically does in comments. But let me give you reason: I don't run third-party malware detector in Windows 8. Should I? I asked my colleagues what they use, and the general consensus is nothing -- just rely on Microsoft Defender. Are we all nuts, or is there no cause for using something else?

Today is my 12th day using Surface Pro as primary PC and first serious commitment to Windows 8, which I really like on this machine. I didn't rush to install antimalware, like earlier versions. Somehow, I feel safe using Windows 8 Pro. My question: Do you?

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If, like my colleague Joe Wilcox, you’ve already been lucky enough to get your hands on Microsoft’s new Surface PC, or you’re thinking of buying it in either the Windows 8 Pro or RT editions (and a stunning 45 percent of you say you'll be purchasing the former), you’ll want to download the new getting started guide immediately.

The official PDF manual from Microsoft Press is 68 pages long (1.35MB) and starts by introducing the device and explaining the differences between Surface RT and Pro, and also lists the accessories available to buy, before guiding readers through the setup process.

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If you're geek, and even if not, Bill Gates' Reddit chat is worth reading, if you missed the live event at 1:45 pm EST today. Microsoft's cofounder held the "Ask Me Anything" in part to promote the annual letter for the foundation he runs with wife Melinda.

I've seen Gates give speeches in numerous venues, many not suited to him. The worst must be about a decade of Consumer Electronics Show keynotes. Gates and CES mixed like positively-charged particles. I never saw one presentation there that really zinged. These weren't his people, no matter how much geekier the attendees after Comdex died.

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Weather may have ruined the Surface Pro launch event, but the "laptop in tablet form" started selling on February 9, in Canada and United States, nonetheless. And just like with its Windows RT-powered sibling, Microsoft aired a video ad that is meant to increase awareness and promote Surface Pro as a business-oriented device. But does it?

Interestingly titled "The Vibe", the Surface Pro video commercial bears a strong resemblance to the Surface RT one that debuted in mid-October. It's a very dynamic advert with business people dancing, smiling, signing, throwing things around, acting cool and generally doing things that business people don't normally ever do while at the office. It even starts with the same guy that opened up the Surface RT ad. The Vibe is a nice concept, but a poor choice for Surface Pro.

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Yesterday it appeared that WinZip for Windows 8 app was now available for free. Which would have represented a fairly swift change of direction, as it’s not even three months since the app first appeared in the Windows Store with a price tag of $7.99.

But apparently this is not the case. The Windows 8 store may label it as free, and you won’t be told otherwise on installation, but it seems the app is only free for a 15 day trial, after which point you’ll need to subscribe for the same $7.99 a year.

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I should say the big launch event planned for New York City. Can you say bad weather? In October Hurricane Sandy sandbagged (absolutely no pun intended) Google's Nexus device unveiling, also in the Big Apple. The search giant announced products anyway. Likewise, Surface Pro sales will go on, in stores around Canada and the United States and online.

"Surface Pro launch activities in NYC have been cancelled due to weather; our best wishes for everyone impacted by the blizzard," a Microsoft spokesperson tells BetaNews. Surely there's a metaphor here somewhere. What Microsoft's top brass must want -- desperately hope for on knees with hands clasped high -- is a blizzard of Surface Pro sales. A storm of people rushing into stores or pounding keys online to buy one of the two models, 64GB ($899) and 128GB ($999). If we were all characters in a novel, the blizzard would foreshadow future events -- or so Microsofties can only hope.

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Fifteenth in a series. Several important applications received updates in the past seven days. Adobe updated its Reader application for Windows 8 and even changed the name of the application to Adobe Reader Touch. Microosft, too, released updates for several of its applications, including the Bing, which now includes video search results.

In another interesting turn of events, WinZip decided to remove the price tag from the company's Windows 8 app of the same name. The application, previously available for $7.99 is now available free.

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Windows 8 fans didn't take Microsoft's decision to dump the familiar Aero Glass interface lightly. Even though the software corporation has very good reasons for doing so, there are users who are willing to put up with the apparent disadvantages and want to bring the transparency back.

Microsoft is known for its stance on the matter and it is unlikely that the software giant will be persuaded to bring Aero Glass back in Windows 8 and, therefore, eat its own words about the advantages of the new interface. For this reason, and likely others as well, a developer decided to take matters into his own hands and release a hack that brings back Aero Glass into the Windows 8 Desktop Window Manager.

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Microsoft introduced its "Aero Glass" interface back with Windows Vista and continued the feature in Windows 7. However, after supporting the motif in early builds of the latest operating system, the company elected to pull the plug. Former Windows exectutive Steven Sinofsky explained the reasons behind the decision in an 11,000 word blog post back in May of 2012.

Sinofsky laid out a number of valid reasons for the decision, including battery life, speed and the new feature set included with Windows 8. However, those are not enough for some customers and that group has found a voice.

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During the mainframe era, you could hear phrase: "No one is fired for buying IBM". In the 1990s and 2000s, the same could be said about Microsoft. As the so-called Post-PC era pushes forward, soon same can be said about Apple, if some IT organizations don't already. Gartner predicts that by 2014, enterprises will accept the fruit-logo as much as Windows, which is something scary for the company owning that market segment.

Consumerization of IT -- or bring your own device to work -- forced Apple on unwilling IT organizations. Now, after tasting the fruit, they like it. More of them than ever are willing to deploy Macs, which encroach on territory Microsoft seeks to claim for Windows 8.

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Fourteenth in a series. Microsoft continues to publish updates for the apps that ship with Windows 8 natively. Both the finance and weather application have been updated this week. However, it is not clear what changed as Microsoft did not update the release notes yet.

As far as total numbers of applications go: the Windows Store in the US lists 21,208 free apps and 6,074 paid apps as of this morning for a total of  27,282 apps. That's an increase of 970 apps this week, which falls in line with past performances. While we have seen slower weeks, app numbers consistently grow by about a 1,000 each week.

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I owe a commenter an apology. Let me explain. Two months ago I wrote about a Microsoft error that allowed anyone the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $14.99, which is supposed to only be available to those who have purchased a Windows 7 PC after June 2, 2012. I took a lot of heat from our kind readers for pointing out the flaw. Microsoft also contacted me and assured me that the loophole would be fixed.

It is an easy fix, honestly. Require the user to enter a Windows 7 key and then check against the database to ensure that it was activated after the required date. It is really that simple. But, Microsoft didn't close the loophole.

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Last day. Windows 8 Pro is $39.99 direct download from Microsoft Store online, or $69.99 for box with DVD. Tomorrow you'll pay $199.99. That's a 400 percent price increase. If you purchased a Windows 7 PC between June 2 and today, you are entitled to the OS for a mere $14.99 and have until the end of February to redeem the upgrade.

Windows Media Center add-on is free today, $9.99 tomorrow. In other words January 31 can be summed up using a phrase that should ring familiar to Microsoft -- Zero Day.

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In mid-December, as part of the "Winter cleaning" operation, Google announced plans to drop support for Exchange ActiveSync effective January 31. Microsoft condemned the decision, and quite vigorously.

Matters are changed. Windows Phone users will get a six-month reprieve, until July 31, to give Microsoft time to adapt. "The Windows Phone team is building support into our software for the new sync protocols Google is using for calendar and contacts -- CalDAV and CardDAV", Microsoft's Michael Stroh says. The company also will use IMAP for push support in order to fully replace EAS' functionality.

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