Articles about Windows 8

A week after Windows 8 launched, today Microsoft announced a new ebook designed to help IT Professionals to integrate the new operating system into their environments. The 147-page tome covers all aspects of the operating system, but is sure to be less-comprehensive than books that will be available from major publishers. On the other hand, this one is free.

The new book covers such essentials as the new hardware innovations, customization and configuration tips, networking enhancements, deployment of the new operating system, apps, recovery, management, Internet Explorer 10, security and several other subjects. In all it encompasses 11 chapters. As part of their announcement Microsoft's Keith Mayer states: "Now that Windows 8 is generally available, this book is a great way to get quickly up-to-speed on all the new improvements in this latest Windows release".

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Thursday, question and answer site Answers launched its new Windows 8 application in the Windows Store.

The application is designed in the Windows 8 style, gives users the basic functionality of asking, answering and editing questions, as well as exploring over 8,000 categories and browsing featured content based on interests. The app utilizes the Windows 8 system-wide search functionality, and users can pin Q&A categories as live tiles on the start screen.

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During a session at BUILD 2012 on Wednesday, Microsoft announced some new enhancements to its Azure platform that bring it onto the playing field with its latest operating system releases - Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

In short, Azure will be expanding to include support for Windows Phone 8 as well as Windows 8. Satya Nadella, President of Microsoft's server and business tools, stressed the importance of bringing all of these platforms together. It will make life much simpler for developers who want to build apps that work across platforms and are cloud friendly.

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In the district court of Maine yesterday, a small, privately owned company called Surfcast Inc. filed a patent infringement complaint against Microsoft for its famous live tile interface, now common among both the Windows and Windows Phone operating system families.

Surfcast was granted a patent back in 2004 (#6,724,403) for a "System and Method For Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources," which bears a strong resemblance to Microsoft's live tile interface.

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In early summer, Microsoft started offering a promotional price on Windows 8 Pro to anyone buying a PC running version 7. But there's a slip up. The $14.99 price is available to anyone willing to take advantage of the company. Several users have already tested this, ah, workaround and verified that it works. But don't expect the loophole to be open for long. However, Microsoft hasn't closed it yet, which I just verified for myself.

To get started, head over to the Windows Upgrade Offer website and click the "Continue" button to begin the rather quick process.  It's the next step where things get a bit messy for the ethically-minded. You will have to be a bit sneaky here and lie to Microsoft. The company wants to know when you purchased that Windows 7 computer you are looking to upgrade and it better have been after June 2nd. But there's no real verification that you did. Microsoft leaves open a gap for the user to fill in. Simply tell Microsoft when and where you purchased your computer. You will also need to agree to a standard terms of use, but be careful you don't agree to the Microsoft newsletter, unless of course you want it.

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Today, Intel subsidiary Havok, an early Windows Phone supporter, announced its complete technology suite will be available to Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 game developers later in the year. Havok's middleware powers a tremendous number of the most popular video games.

Last June, Valve CEO Gabe Newell famously said Windows 8 would be "a catastrophe" for the PC industry, with specifically catastrophic results for the PC gaming industry. Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo added to Newell's comment, saying Windows 8 was "not awesome for Blizzard, either." Shortly thereafter, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson expressed worry that a "locked down" Windows 8 would be "very very bad for Indie games and competition in general."

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When it comes to Windows 8 sales, CEO Steve Ballmer obviously knows much better than I do how many copies of the new OS Microsoft is shifting. But, his claim that the company has sold four million upgrades since Friday, sounds suspect to me. Where is he getting this figure from? Is it from the Windows Upgrade Offer site? If so, then that’s great -- a phenomenal achievement.

If it’s from there and other sources, as the slide shown at BUILD 2012 suggests, well, I’m not sure. Getting those kind of sales figures from a wide range of retailers takes time and can only have been arrived at by making some phone calls to gauge response (or chasing up EPoS from selected sources), followed by a spot of calculator prodding and some guessing.

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Today, Microsoft kicked off its second BUILD. Last year's event replaced the Professional Developers Conference. This year marks a change in venue, from Los Angeles to Redmond, Wash. and comes amid, rather than before, a flurry of new Microsoft products. Windows 8 launched October 26, Windows Phone 8 yesterday and Office 2013 is released to manufacturing and available to developers and corporate customers. There's Windows Server 2012 and more either out the pipeline or coming down it.

Microsoft is determined to woo developers to its new stuff and accompanying platform changes. During today's Day 1 keynote, attendees learned about the schwag: Surface RT 32GB and Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone. Consider them tools of the trade, for creating and testing new applications. Microsoft also slashed developers' fee for Windows Phone to $8 from $99. That is for just eight days.

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Unlike Microsoft that showcased Surface on more than one occasion or Nokia that pitched the Lumia 920 against the iPhone 5, Samsung mostly kept quiet about its Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 lineup. Breaking the silence, the South Korean company introduced a video ad featuring ATIV devices today.

Portraying ATIV devices as crisis-solving solutions, the advertisement introduces the company's Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the ATIV S and ATIV Smart PC (Pro), Windows RT (8)-based tablet as devices suited for active businessmen such as Hunt. Using the latter device he's shown editing a PowerPoint presentation on the go, and also uses the S Pen stylus to add notes. Then the central role is taken by the former device, using the included Office suite allows a colleague to edit an Excel workbook.

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Napier & Son was the most successful British manufacturer of aircraft engines in the 1920s and 30s with their 12-cylinder Napier Lion powering 163 different types of aircraft between 1918 and 1935. Over that 17 year period the Lion grew from 450 to 1350 horsepower and was, for awhile, the most powerful aircraft, boat and car engine in the world, holding world speed records in all three venues at the same time. And then the Napier Lion was suddenly gone -- a lesson from  which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer could benefit if he and his company don’t repeat it.

Napier perfected the Lion engine over those 17 years, improving it in every way until it was the best and most efficient engine of its class in the world. Then, seemingly overnight, the class changed as air forces and record setters alike suddenly needed more than the 1,350 horsepower a finely-tuned Lion could deliver. Napier’s Lion gave way to Rolls-Royce’s larger and innately more powerful Merlin and Griffon engines and Napier, for all intents and purposes, was gone.

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It’s fair to say Valve’s boss Gabe Newell isn’t a fan of Windows 8. In fact, the ex-Microsoft man called the new OS a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space" and, just in case that doesn't make his views clear enough, Valve announced shortly afterwards that it would be working on bringing Steam, its hugely popular games distribution platform, to Linux. A move that prompted me to ask the seemingly unthinkable: Will Windows 8 make Linux the new gaming OS?

I guess we’ll find out the answer to that question soon enough because Windows 8 is now here and, it seems, the Linux version of Steam won’t be too far behind it.

Last Friday, Valve put out an open request for experienced Linux users to apply for the chance to install and test its new Steam for Linux client, stating that it would be notifying successful participants this week, and kicking off the limited beta shortly afterwards.

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Hours ahead of Windows Phone 8's big launch, Microsoft released an app to the Windows Store.

So what does it actually do? Like the name suggests Windows Phone is designed to sync music, photos, videos as well as other types of files between computers running Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Through the app users can also access programs available on the Windows Phone Store. But there's a problem, which has been signaled by a great number of users.

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O&O Software has announced the availability of the Migration Kit for Windows 8, a bundle of two packages which aims to simplify the process of upgrading to the new operating system. At the heart of the Migration Kit is Laplink PCmover Professional, which can transfer your data, applications and settings from a Windows XP, Vista or 7 PC to Windows 8 (either on a separate PC, or in place).

The other major kit component is a copy of O&O DiskImage Professional 6.8.1, ideal for creating a backup image of your original system configuration before you start.

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Microsoft officially launched Windows 8 at midnight yesterday. There were launch events in New York and even earlier, thanks to the International Time Line, Sydney, Australia, where the product first went on sale. With the weekend here, and for many people a little more free time, the new operating system is sure to be closely considered by many; and even purchased.

While the vast majority of people upgrading will not have any issues, there is always the stray use-case scenario that will cause grief.  Microsoft does a great job with compatibility, and even works to make the OS backward-compatible with older hardware and as much software as possible. One of the biggest issues that can bite end users is drivers. A printer here or video card there can wreak havoc with the upgrade experience. A free app called DriverScanner aims to fix all of that, and there is brand new 2013 version offering Windows 8-friendly scanning.

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Without a shadow of a doubt Windows 8 is a game changer for Microsoft. It's the operating system designed to take the company into a new computing era where the personal computer is no longer the star of the show, but still plays an important role. Can the latest version of the popular operating system manage to shine against its predecessors on their home turf? And for that matter, should you upgrade?

Windows 8 is a mixed bag before its launch and generating quite strong impressions along the way since Microsoft released the final build to manufacturing. The main criticism: the new user interface formerly known as Metro and the steeper learning curve compared to Windows 8's predecessors; it's not as intuitive as well. That's what the critics say, but what's it like to actually live with Windows 8 for more than a brief period of time?

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