Articles about Windows

Steve Ballmer's departure from Microsoft will be a series of epitaphs written over the coming months. Many arm-chair pundits and analysts will scrutinize his 13-year tenure as chief executive, and you can expect him to be the scapegoat for all things wrong with Microsoft. Most assuredly, Ballmer could have done many things better, but he also contended with forces out of his control: government oversight for anti-competitive practices conducted under predecessor Bill Gates' leadership; maturing PC software market; and rise of the Internet as the new computing hub, among others.

For all Microsoft's CEO might have done wrong, he was right about something dismissed by many -- and I among them: Google. Ballmer started treating the search and information company as a competitive threat about a decade ago. Google as Microsoft competitor seemed simply nuts in 2003. How could search threaten Windows, particularly when anyone could type a new web address to change providers? Ballmer was obsessed, chasing every Google maneuver, often to a fault. Execution could have been better, but his perception was right.

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Kaspersky has released updated installer versions of Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2014. Both updates include the recently rolled out "Patch B", which adds support for Windows 8.1 and Firefox 23/24.

The update also fixes a number of bugs, but previously had to be installed separately after installing KIS 2014 or KAV 2014.

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So… you don’t want Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 7, eh? What are you going to do? Block it! Ahead of the release of the completed version of IE11, Microsoft is giving Windows 7 users the chance to avoid automatically updating. The Internet Explorer 11 Blocker Toolkit can be used to prevent the web browser from being pushed as an "important" update when it is released.

IE11 comes as an integral part of Windows 8.1 (Windows 8 users can currently only get it by upgrading) and a Release Preview of the browser was made available for Windows 7 three weeks ago. There's no official word on when the finished version of IE11 for Windows 7 will see the light of day, but it's likely to be fairly soon.

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In his "5 reasons Surface tablets blow away iPads for a mobile business workforce" piece, my colleague Derrick Wlodarz explained why Remote Desktop on Windows RT (and, by implication, Windows 8) is better compared to third-party clients on Android and iOS. Derrick says that the former offers a richer feature set, a smoother experience, improved stability, less compatibility issues and comes with no initial cost (because it is free, as a built-in feature). As you can tell, the lack of official Remote Desktop apps on Android and iOS tips the scale in Microsoft's favor.

That is about to change, as Microsoft has announced that it will release Remote Desktop apps on "a variety of devices and platforms", which include Windows, Windows RT, OS X, Android and iOS. The software giant says the offerings will be introduced with Windows Server 2012 R2, which launches later this month, on October 18, alongside Windows 8.1.

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Opera Software has announced the release of Opera 17.0 FINAL, an interesting build which includes several small but worthwhile new features. Top of the list is a new "pinned" tab option.

If you have a few tabs which you need to stay open, just right-click them and select "Pin tab". The tabs will be reduced to the size of the page icon (handy if you are running short on space), and you will not be able to close them accidentally.

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For an exclusive Windows user, the prospect of owning a Mac has been an exciting to-do to cross off my enthusiast bucket list. I have owned two iPhones and one iPad, and have enjoyed all three, but I have never bought a Mac nor have I used one extensively. I have always been curious to see what's on the other side, but some constraints, one of which was Windows-only engineering software, prevented me from looking at any Mac with serious consideration. Luckily, or not, things have changed, and at the beginning of September I bought a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air, hoping to see what all the fuss is about.

I'll admit to being quite passionate about new devices, and always looking to get to know the basics before they arrive at my doorstep. Yes, I too scour the InterWebs searching for the tiniest of details. I just can't help it (and no, I do not believe that I am a control freak). But this time around I decided that the MacBook Air (I'm going to call it MBA from now on) needs a fresh take. Before it arrived, my impressions were that the hardware will not be a surprise (why would it be?) and that the software will take some getting used to. I thought everything was going to be smooth sailing once I settled in... and I was wrong.

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There’s not long to go now until Microsoft unleashes Windows 8.1 upon the world. In my view the operating system refresh is Windows 8 done properly, but whether it does enough to win over the masses remains to be seen.

Certainly Microsoft will be hoping for a change in fortunes because the tiled operating system's market share is currently pretty poor -- at least when you factor in how much of a push the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant has put behind it.

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Every once in a while the BetaNews writers have differing opinions when it comes to certain topics. Case in point: my colleague Joe Wilcox just wrote a story which may lead you to believe that touch is an essential feature for Windows laptops. That could not be further from the truth. As a long-time Windows (and Windows 8 user) there wasn't a single moment when I felt the need to poke the screen. And I'm sure that many fellow users would agree.

Joe cites NPD's Stephen Baker in saying that "Touch appears to be coming into its own as a core feature in the Windows ecosystem". That's a bit like saying "Stickers appear to be coming into their own as a core feature on laptops' palm rests". Touch doesn't have to be included (nor do the stickers), and here is why.

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Yesterday, Apple refreshed the iCloud web interface with a new look and feel, bringing it close to the new iOS 7 in terms of overall design. The company however hasn't stopped there as it also released an update for the iCloud Control Panel for Windows, that introduces support for Chrome and Firefox bookmarks sync.

Chrome and Firefox join Internet Explorer as the supported browsers in iCloud Control Panel for Windows. The new feature allows users of the cloud-based service to sync bookmarks from the Windows versions of the two aforementioned browsers with Safari, on iOS and OS X.

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Internet Explorer 11 is a big improvement over previous versions of Microsoft’s browser, but it’s only available on Windows 8.1. Or rather that was the case. Following on from the early Developer Preview put out in late July, Microsoft has announced a Release Preview of its new browser for Windows 7.

Building on IE10, Internet Explorer 11 is speedier -- Microsoft says the performance improvements make it 30 percent faster than other browsers -- and introduces support for the latest web standards, such as WebGL.

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Orpalis has released PaperScan Free 2.0, a major new build of its cleanup and optimisation tool for scanned and PDF documents. The free version, which is limited to batch scanning and optimization of 10 pages at a time, adds a number of new features and options, plus promises improved performance with specific file types.

PaperScan Free 2.0, which is also available in paid-for form as Home or Professional Editions, opens with the promise of dramatically faster file saving using the TIFF format, along with improved performance of all document imaging filters.

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Binary Fortress Software has released DisplayFusion 5.1, a major update of its multi-monitor management tool for Windows. Available in both free and Pro versions, the latest version adds a number of notable new features, plus improves compatibility with the forthcoming Windows 8.1 release and promises better quality generated wallpaper images.

The headline new feature is support for monitor splitting, which allows folks to set up multiple "virtual" monitors. Binary Fortress claims this feature will particularly suit high-end users with AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround setups.

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Cross-platform open-source archiving tool PeaZip 5.1 is here. Also available as a standalone 64-bit build and in portable format for Windows users, the latest version adds a new Schedule tab in machines running Windows Vista or later.

The new tab, which is fully integrated with the Windows Task Scheduler, makes it easier to create scheduled archiving and extracting tasks, such as backing up or restoring data from an archive at set intervals.

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For those in the States, the mad dash to compliance is unquestionably on. After years of taking a "wait and see" approach to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations surrounding medical office technology, healthcare providers (and related covered entities) are scrambling to get their systems and procedures in order. Big Brother has officially set a September 23, 2013 deadline for most new rules that put into place heightened protocols for how patient information (PI) is shared as well as how notifications about breaches need to be handled, among other things.

Naturally, a lot of my consulting clients in the healthcare industry are reaching out for professional help on how to get their IT systems in line as these deadlines approach. One of the biggest facets of the new HIPAA laws, which affects companies like mine that provide hands-on IT consulting, is that for the first time ever we are being considered "covered entities" in the same boat as the healthcare outlets themselves.

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Over the years, the big knock on OS X was that it lacked the software availability that Windows had. While Apple's operating system has made huge gains, Windows is still the software leader -- especially for business. When Parallels was released in 2006, it solved a problem for many Apple users; it allowed them to run Windows on their Mac.

Today, Parallels announces version 9 of its virtualization software. "Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac customers will enjoy peace of mind knowing that Parallels keeps pace with and supports leading new technologies, such as the upcoming OS X Mavericks, Windows 8.1 and increasingly popular cloud services", says CEO Birger Steen.

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