Items tagged with Operating System
Microsoft's strategy to offer Windows 10 as a no-cost upgrade option to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users is paying off. Just one day after launch, the Redmond outfit announced that Windows 10 had found its way onto more than 14 million devices. By Friday morning, that number unofficially ballooned to 67 million devices.An anonymous Microsoft employee revealed the updated statistic to Windows Central. According to the employee, the 67 million figure was accurate as of 8 AM on Friday, meaning that 53 million more Windows 10 installs took place since Microsoft's announcement on Thursday.This is a sign that the phased upgraded plan is going smoothly. In addition to revealing 67 million Windows 10...
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One of the reasons Windows 8 never resonated with the public is because there were too many jarring changes, both in appearance and functionality. To make matters worse, Microsoft dismissed the criticisms by taking a 'father knows best' approach -- you'll use it and you'll like it! But users didn't like it, and even one of Windows 8's designers eventually admitted that the Metro UI "is the antithesis of a power user." Well, that's all water under the bridge, old news, yesterday's events. Windows 10 is here, finally. And unlike Windows 8, early impressions are mostly positive. Make no mistake, Windows 10 isn't Windows 8/8.1 with a Start menu, it's much more, and perhaps Microsoft was spot on to...
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After all the hype, hoopla, and anticipation, tomorrow is the big day. We're of course talking about the initial roll out of Windows 10, which will be delivered to users in waves to ensure everything runs smoothly, and the beginning of a new era for Microsoft. In preparation for the big day, some users have reported around 3GB of downloaded Windows 10 installation files sitting dormant on their PCs.There are multiple reports of users seeing a folder named $windows.~BT on their operating system partition, which for most people is going to be the C:\ drive (C:\$windows.~BT). While the contents haven't been confirmed, the size of the folder and timing of its appearance strongly suggests that Microsoft...
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We're in the homestretch now, folks! In just nine days, Microsoft will launch Windows 10 and begin doling out free upgrades to registered Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users in waves. Make no mistake, this is a big launch for Microsoft, as it can ill afford to release another OS that lands to heavy criticism the way Windows 8 did. To help avoid that, Microsoft's message in a new ad campaign is that you should upgrade to Windows 10 because "it's familiar." It's a simple message that provides the foundation for the 46-second clip titled "10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 10: IT'S FAMILIAR," and it's one that should resonate well with Windows users who found the changes in Windows 8 to be too jarring....
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Here's the deal folks, if you own a valid copy of Windows 7 with SP1 installed or Windows 8.1, you can upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge for the first year. You may have even registered for your upgrade via a taskbar icon. If not, go ahead and get in line -- Microsoft will begin doling out Windows 10 updates on July 29, which will roll out in waves.What if you don't own a copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and plan on building a new system? Well, you'll have to pony up for Windows 10. If you're feeling anxious, you can place your pre-order right now at Amazon. The online seller is offering Windows 10 Home for $120 and Windows 10 Pro for $200, both of which will arrive on a USB flash drive.Which...
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Microsoft has been busy kicking out Windows 10 Technical Preview builds at a furious pace as of late (three releases in a week, including two that came on subsequent days), but what we haven't seen is a Release To Manufacturing (RTM) candidate. Until now, that is. It appears that Build 10176 is the first RTM of Windows 10, though it may not represent the final product that ships July 29.Traditionally speaking, RTM releases are those with finished code in need of a bit of last minute testing before going gold. However, there are still two weeks left before Windows 10 is set to ship to the public, so we're likely to see at least one more RTM build in the interim, especially with how rapidly Microsoft...
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Windows XP enjoyed a nice, long run, but after over a decade of faithful service, Microsoft finally pulled the plug on the legacy operating system and discontinued support in April of last year. All but the most diehard fans have since moved on, though it's still installed on more desktops than Windows 8.1, and on almost as many as Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 combined. You can count the U.S. Navy's system among them. According to a contract page at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Navy opted to pay Microsoft over $9.1 million dollars to continue offering custom support services for Windows XP. The contract also covers Office 2003, Exchange 2003, and Server 2003. As part of the...
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Opting for the Fast ring on Microsoft's Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview program means you'll gain access to new Windows builds before everyone else, but it also means having to put up with bugs that get squashed before the build trickles over to Slow ring subscribers. Case in point, Microsoft has made available Build 10136 on the Fast ring, and if you're using the previous Fast ring release (Build 10080), you'll have to jump through some hoops to upgrade. Microsoft says there's a migration bug that prevents upgrades from 10080 to 10136, and so the Redmond outfit isn't supporting that upgrade path. Instead, users of 10080 have to revert back to Windows 8.1 using Microsoft's Windows Phone Recovery...
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Looking for something to do this weekend? Microsoft has made available an ISO for its Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130. The company took the unusual step of releasing an ISO for the build before doling it out to the Slow ring, and the reason for that is there's a bug that's preventing users on the Fast ring from getting the latest release. "Hi everyone, today we are releasing the ISOs for Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130. We are not, however, releasing Build 10130 to the Slow ring due to several bugs we’re looking to fix," Microsoft explained. "Once we have these fixes in hand and ready to push out to Windows Update, we’ll consider pushing Build 10130 to the Slow ring. I know we said...
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It seems hard to fathom, but it's been two and a half decades since Microsoft released its first true mainstream operating system, Windows 3.0. Yes, there were two major releases that preceded it, but Windows 3.0 was the first to version to strike a cord and see widespread use. Together with Windows 3.1, Microsoft sold 10 million copies in the first two years.By the time Windows 3.0 debuted on this day in 1990, computers had already become a part of daily life. PCs were getting faster, and Windows offered a friendly user interface that was far more welcoming to new users than having to type commands in MS-DOS. It also spurred the interest of developers, especially once Microsoft released its...
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Chinese telecom Huawei reckons the fast growing Internet of Things (IoT) landscape will consist of 100 billion connections by 2025 with two million new sensors being deployed every hour. The company readily admits that its network is ill equipped to handle the future load, though it's very much interested in being a major player in the IoT market. As such, Huawei announced an architecture upgrade that, among other things, includes new a operating system called LiteOS.Huawei describes its aptly named LiteOS as the world's most lightweight OS for IoT devices. With a footprint of just 10KB, we won't argue the point. Though small in size, Huawei has big ambitions for LiteOS, which it says can be...
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Like China, officials in Russia aren't happy that so much of the nation's technology is reliant on software that originates from the United States. In an effort to change that, the country's minister for communications and mass media, Nikolai Nikiforov, reportedly announced plans to develop a brand new mobile operating system. The mobile OS will be based on Jolla's open-source Sailfish OS. At present, Sailfish OS is only installed on 0.5 percent of devices in Russia. Meanwhile, Android enjoys an 81 percent market share while iOS claims another 15 percent. That equates to Android or iOS being installed on 9.6 out of every 10 devices in Russia, or nearly all of them. Nikiforov knows he faces a...
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Microsoft wants you to be able to let others know how you really feel, so the company's giving you the middle finger to do just that. The new emoji is one of several being introduced in Windows 10, and what's awesome about its inclusion is that Microsoft is venturing into territory that other major tech companies haven't had the guts to trek.Just last month, Apple introduced hundreds of new emoji to iOS and OS X, including 14 new families, 198 new flags, 60 updated people, and a whole lot more. The update even included a hand gesture, just not a profane one -- it's the Vulcan salute made popular by Spock in Star Trek.Android also has plenty of emoji to play with, but if you to flip someone the...
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Microsoft is giving us a lot to be excited about with the release of Windows 10 -- it's a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, it will introduce a brand new browser (Project Spartan), the return of the Start menu, universal apps, and a whole bunch more. Go ahead and add to the growing list built-in tech support.Now before you go and pshaw this latest amenity, consider that even though you may know your way around Windows and are adept at troubleshooting issues as they arrive, your folks probably fall on the other end of the spectrum. Or your friends. Heck, be excited for anyone that often calls you at bizarre hours because they're having a "computer emergency" and require your pro...
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