Articles about Windows

Microsoft ended support for XP two months ago, yet consumers are still proving resistant to change, and many businesses are similarly reluctant to upgrade to a newer version of Windows.

According to security firm Bitdefender, which conducted a three-month global study into the operating system use of small and medium businesses, nearly 19 percent of firms, or almost one in five, are sticking with the aging XP despite security concerns.

Continue reading →

If you’ve ever spent time troubleshooting low-level PC problems then you’ll know that understanding Windows services can be very helpful. The standard Services applet (Win+R > services.msc) tells you a lot about what’s happening on your system -- but there is one important exception.

Windows 7 and 8 support service "triggers", a mechanism which allows Windows services to start when a particular event occurs (a device is plugged in to the computer, say). The Services applet highlights these by listing their Startup Type as "Manual (Trigger Start)" or "Automatic (Trigger Start)", but double-click a triggered service and it won’t tell you anything more.

Continue reading →

Around 50 percent of PC users are on Windows 7, while just 12 percent are running Windows 8.x, yet Microsoft is leaving the more popular OS vulnerable to zero day attacks by choosing to only patch the newest Windows version. That’s the findings of two security researchers who built a tool to compare 900 libraries in Windows 8 with their Windows 7 counterparts.

"If Microsoft added a safe function in Windows 8, why does it not exist in Windows 7? The answer is simple, it’s money -- Microsoft does not want to waste development time on older operating systems. They want people to move to higher operating systems," security researcher Moti Joseph claimed in a presentation at the Troopers14 conference in Heidelberg, Germany.

Continue reading →

Most everyone, at least the tech-savvy who read this, are familiar with VLC Player -- the Video LAN Client. It's a jack-of-all trades media player, that is capable of handling pretty much any format you can throw at it, no matter how obscure it may be.

Now the developers of the project are revealing one more feature that is on the roadmap -- support for Chromecast. The question was asked on the forums and lead developer Felix Paul Kuehne responded that support was in the works. "Yep, this is exactly what we are up to", he states.

Continue reading →

I love First-Person shooter video games such as Call of Duty and Quake 4. For that genre of game, my trusty keyboard and mouse is the optimal way to interact with my on-screen character. However, for all other games like fighting, racing and platforming, I need and demand a quality controller. While there are many to choose from, the Xbox 360 controller has proven to be the most reliable and comfortable for many. Drivers exist for Windows, so gamers can connect it by USB or buy a wireless variant and dongle.

Sadly, Xbox One controller drivers have been absent for Windows. This is puzzling as Microsoft is behind the controller and operating system. This new controller is wonderfully built and designed, so gamers have been eager to use it on their PC gaming rigs. Well, today the wait ends -- Microsoft has finally delivered the drivers we have been waiting for.

Continue reading →

In late-April, Microsoft introduced the much-awaited Remote Desktop app on Windows Phone 8.1, giving a small subset of its Windows Phone users, who wish to beta-test the offering, the ability to connect remotely, from their smartphones, to Windows PCs.

The app launched with a powerful feature set, but it just received its first update which makes the experience even better. Microsoft details the first round of improvements in an MSDN blog post. The new iteration brings Remote Desktop even closer to its counterparts on Android, iOS, OS X and Windows 8.1, in terms of functionality, according to the software giant.

Continue reading →

If Microsoft expected XP users to desert the aging OS once support officially came to an end, the tech giant will no doubt have been sorely disappointed. Although XP’s market share has fallen in the two months since it reached end of life, the 13 year old operating system remains hugely popular.

According to Net Applications, from March to May, XP lost just 2.42 percent market share, and is still to be found on over a quarter of all Windows systems. Windows 7 gained 1.29 percent in the same time period, to break the 50 percent barrier, and Windows 8.x increased its share by 1.34 percent for a not so grand total of 12.64 percent. Statista has put together a little graph showing how little end of support has changed XP’s popularity.

Continue reading →

Believe it or not, system builders are a diverse set. Some people focus on looks, others on performance and some on value. However, gamers are typically the ones that push the boundaries with performance and high-costs when building rigs. While some people will write-off video games as a silly time waster, they are actually a vital driver of personal computing innovation. Hell, it is also good financially for the hardware business -- new games need better hardware and gamers are willing to pay to play.

Beyond expensive video cards and overclocked CPUs and RAM, gamers are constantly looking for a way to gain an edge. Anything that can make a game load faster, even by seconds, is extremely attractive to them. Today, SanDisk announces the Extreme PRO SSD -- a storage solution for gamers that want to utilize SATA III rather than much costlier options. PlayStation 4 owners will want to take notice too.

Continue reading →

Windows XP users might be able to (sort of) cheat the aging operating system’s end of life, but ultimately the only real way to stay safe is, as Microsoft says, by upgrading to a newer, more modern version of Windows. NetMarketShare’s monthly snapshot of the desktop OS share trend shows users are continuing to slowly migrate away from XP. The OS’s share dropped 1.02 percent from 26.29 percent in April to 25.27 percent in May.

So the question is, where are XP users moving to? I think you probably know the answer to that by now.

Continue reading →

When you think of gaming PCs, your mind may immediately conjure huge ATX towers with LED lights, and massively large and expensive graphics cards. Yes, the rigs of many a gamer will resemble the previously envisioned computer. However, why does it have to be this way? Not all PC video gamers are teens looking for flash and pizzazz. No, some of them are adults and want something more mature and subdued.

Today, MSI unveils gaming all-in-one desktops that are mature and tame in design, but still sexy. The machines pack a significant amount of power, but the footprint on a desk will be no more than a typical monitor. In other words, the gaming PC has grown up.

Continue reading →

The hack I wrote about yesterday, that allows XP users to continue to receive security updates via the still-supported Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, was never going to get Microsoft’s blessing. Obviously it is a slightly unusual and risky way of cheating the system, even though it works.

ZDNet picked up on the story and asked Microsoft for a comment, and as you’d expect, the devices and services giant was happy to take the opportunity to suggest XP users just move on.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has stopped providing XP users with security updates, forcing them to either upgrade to another, newer operating system, or gamble with their safety. While the latest usage figures show that a large portion of users are moving away from XP, there’s still a sizable number of users who aren’t -- or can’t.

If you’re an XP user, or know some XP users, there’s a trick which makes it possible to receive security updates for the aging OS for another five years -- right up until April 2019.

Continue reading →

Windows XP support officially ended on last month, yet it is estimated around 30 percent of businesses are still yet to migrate to a new operating system.

Sumir Karayi, CEO of IT efficiency company 1E, explains why 'Zero-Touch Migration' offers the best approach for those businesses that need a rapid route to moving away from Windows XP to minimize the impact on security, desktop performance and the user experience.

Continue reading →

Despite what some people think, the PC is not dead. However, for many, the concept of buying a desktop PC with a monstrous tower is. After all, thanks to companies like Apple, electronics have become art. And so, if someone does need a PC, they may opt for a laptop or all-in-one instead.

Truth be told, I have never been a huge fan of all-in-ones. If the display breaks, you could end up with a giant paperweight. I still remember when people bought TV/VCR combos. Almost always, the VCR failed and you would see a second VCR connected -- insanity. I have been of the opinion that it is best to keep your monitor and computer separate. With that said, I do like having a small footprint on a desk. Today, Zotac announces a spherical PC that is not only small, but beautiful too.

Continue reading →

Microsoft may have been granted permission to launch its Xbox One console in China in September, but a decision by the Chinese government could impact severely on sales of Windows 8. China's official state news agency, Xinhua reports that the latest version of Microsoft's operating system will be banned from governmental computers, although there are to be no restrictions placed on home computers. The reason for the ban on Windows 8? Well it's not quite clear, but it's put down to something to do with energy-saving -- although this seems unlikely.

The website of China's Central Government Procurement Center posted an 'Important Notice' entitled, catchily, "Agreement to supply information about the class of energy-saving products complement the mandatory tender notice". A list of criteria then follows including, at number 5 "all computer products are not allowed to install Windows 8 operating system". This is slightly at odds with the news agency's suggestion -- the official news agency, remember -- that Windows 8 is being banned from new government PCs in "a move to ensure computer security after the shutdown of Windows XP".

Continue reading →