Items tagged with Vista
The Steam Hardware Survey for August 2010 has been out for a bit, but it's always interesting to see what trends are influencing PC gamers over a period of months. There's a great deal of data available; we'll break down some of the more pertinent and interesting categories. Video Cards:DX11 Ramping Well The first thing of note in this category is the rate at which DX11 adoption is growing. Not only has the API's total market share grown by 82 percent in the past six months, the rate of growth from month to month has also grown. In May, DX11 market share grew by 10 percent; in June, July, and August it grew by 22 percent, 14 percent, and 18 percent respectively. Gamers have largely completed...
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Wow. Just wow. Sometimes, there's just nothing more to say. And this is one of those times, but we'll try to elaborate anyway. Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, probably pulls home a nice paycheck. He's right up there beside Steve Ballmer's corner office, and when he speaks about Microsoft, people understandably listen. He's the COO, after all. So recently, when he spoke at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., it made it impossible for us to ignore. What exactly did he say? "It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that." Yes, "their" refers to Apple, and the statement is true. It's somewhat hard to believe that this was said,...
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Microsoft has confirmed that there's a service pack in the works for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 but the company isn't saying when it plans to release the updates—at least not yet. The fact that Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are built on the same code base should simplify SP1's development. Thus far, Server 2008 R2 seems to be getting most of the goodies; Microsoft will introduce two new features for the business OS dubbed Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX. Dynamic Memory is a virtualization technology that allows sysadmins to customize the physical RAM allocated to specific virtual systems while RemoteFX will allow remote users to view rich content (think Silverlight, Flash, etc) running...
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If Microsoft maintains a list of its least-popular ideas, initiatives, and software programs, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has to be near the top. Initially marketed as a voluntary tool when it launched in September of 2004, Microsoft announced just six months later that any user who wanted to access non-critical security updates for their OS would be required to install WGA. Despite Microsoft's attempt to bill WGA as a security feature, public opinion of its "Genuine Advantage" has been anything but good. This is partly Microsoft's fault. The company has, at various times, attempted to sneak WGA on to computers through unspecified Windows updates, and got caught with its fingers squarely...
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The economy as a whole helped to drag Microsoft's profits below where they would have liked them last year, but the company's first quarterly report in the new decade is quite different in nature. Put simply, Microsoft is beaming once more as it rakes in monumental profits, thanks in no small part to the highly successful launch of Windows 7.Last October, PC users who were fed up with Vista's annoyances were given a way out (multiple ways out, if you consider the various versions of Windows 7), and evidently quite a few took advantage of the opportunity. Revenue in the Windows division alone shot up 70% during the last quarter, which helped to overshadow other divisions that were either flat...
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Windows 7 has been on the market for over a full quarter now, so it's about time for a check on how the OS is doing. According to figures from Net Applications, the system looks to be doing quite well. So well, in fact, that the growth rate is making Vista's old launch growth rate look mighty bad in comparison. A peek at the worldwide OS market share from December 2009 shows that Windows as a whole is around 92%. Really though, that's not the story. Windows has had over 90% of the overall operating system share for many, many years, but it's the rapid increase of Windows 7 users that is really of interest. If you look at the first small window of time after launch, you'll see that Win7 is skyrocketing...
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This week may be as big a week in the company's history as Microsoft has ever had. We know, that's a pretty bold statement, but there is a lot of evidence to back that up. Microsoft has been drowning in negative press and negative vibes for most of Vista's life; it has tried for years to spit-shine the image of its "Wow!-inducing" operating system, and by and large, it has failed. Join us to see the ten greatest features of Windows 7 that should've been in Vista, and learn how those ten features will make your life that much better if you're currently pondering the upgrade. The Top Windows 7 Features That Vista Should Have Had ...
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This week may be as big a week in the company's history as Microsoft has ever had. We know, that's a pretty bold statement, but there's a lot of evidence to back that up. Microsoft has been drowning in negative press and negative vibes for most of Vista's life; it has tried for years to spit-shine the image of its "Wow!-inducing" operating system, and by and large, it has failed. In order to really understand the importance of Windows 7, we've got to go back in time a bit and take the whole of Microsoft's work into account. For those of you old enough to remember Y2K and that underground bunker you built in order to stay safe, you're probably old enough to remember Windows ME. It's almost impossible...
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Heads-up, PC enthusiasts! Windows 7--Microsoft's self-proclaimed "best OS ever" is launching to the public tomorrow. Tomorrow, junior! It hasn't even been three full years since the launch of Windows Vista, but already Microsoft is looking to put the past behind it and get on with the new. A recent survey by iYogi has taken a look at what the hottest Windows 7 trends are, and what people are talking about. The most popular topics? Most of it revolves around the fear of the unknown, which isn't at all shocking. Upgrading to a new OS is child's play for experienced PC users and builders, but for the average person, this is a huge, huge deal. Most folks are resistant to change when something seems...
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You've heard horror stories from your pals who attempted to handle data migration processes on their own, and you're scared to death to make the leap to Windows 7. Thankfully, Belkin knows just what a tough spot you're in, and it has devised a dedicated cable to solve the problem that worries you most: upgrading. Of note, this cable won't do you any good if you're planning to upgrade your existing machine from Windows XP/Vista to Windows 7, but if you're putting together an all new rig and would like to migrate your data and settings over to the fresh rig, this should make your life a lot easier. We'll confess--the Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 seems a bit unnecessary, but then again, we're...
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In our 2009 Notebook Buyer's Guide, we discussed the merits and perils of CULV based notebooks. This suddenly popular and quickly growing sector looks to bridge the gap between the bargain basement netbook and the full-size notebook. It makes sense to think that a swath of 13.3" to 14" machines would be needed for those who find 10.1" netbook displays too tiny and 15.4" rigs too large, and that's exactly the sweet spot that Asus is attempting to hit with its new UL30 range. The particular model that we're looking at today is the UL30A-A1, though a handful of other configurations will be available as well. This 13.3" machine looks to offer more power than a typical netbook, yet provide nearly...
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In our 2009 Notebook Buyer's Guide, we discussed the merits and perils of CULV based notebooks. This suddenly popular and quickly growing sector looks to bridge the gap between the bargain basement netbook and the full-size notebook. It makes sense to think that a swath of 13.3" to 14" machines would be needed for those who find 10.1" netbook displays too tiny and 15.4" rigs too large, and that's exactly the sweet spot that Asus is attempting to hit with its new UL30 range. The particular model that we're looking at today is the UL30A-A1, though a handful of other configurations will be available as well. This 13.3" machine looks to offer more power than a typical netbook,...
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AMD will be posting a brand new set of ATI Catalyst drivers to their website shortly that will feature a number of changes and enhancements for Radeon users. The first tid-bit of news is that the ATI Catalyst v9.7 driver package will be AMD’s first official Windows 7 / Windows Vista Unified WHQL-certified driver for the Windows 7 RTM edition.In addition to being unified, these new drivers should also offer increased performance to Windows 7 users. Due to enhancements in Windows 7's memory management scheme and the ATI Catalyst drivers themselves, AMD reports that users can expect to see performance improvements of approximately 8% - 40% depending on the graphics configuration (multi-GPU setups...
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Good news, Windows fans/users. If you're in need of a PC now, but don't want to miss out on the Windows 7 train which officially leaves the station on October 22nd, Microsoft is stepping in to help. Today, the software giant announced that starting tomorrow (June 26th), consumers and small businesses that purchase a Vista-enabled PC from a participating computer maker or retailer will qualify for a free or low-cost upgrade to Windows 7.Unfortunately, it's hard to say exactly who those "qualified retailers/vendors" are, but we know for a fact that HP and Sony will be included. We have all ideas that most legitimate places will also abide by these rules--companies like Gateway, Dell, Acer, Asus,...
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Hear ye, hear ye! If you've been tossing around the idea of putting Windows 7 on your rig, you should probably get a move on. The Windows Team has chimed in to remind us all that Windows 7 Beta users will soon be annoyed into upgrading to Windows 7 RC1, while even those on the sidelines best grab the latter soon.Starting on July 1st, Windows 7 Beta copies will begin to reboot every two hours (can you even imagine?) and expire completely on August 1st. The Release Candidate download program will also close on August 15th, leaving just a few months to get your first taste of Microsoft's forthcoming operating system. And trust us, if you're on Vista, you definitely want to get to Win7 pronto....
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Expectations couldn't possibly be higher for Microsoft's next-generation operating system. Amazingly, this will be the first Windows OS that will actually run smoother on current-gen hardware than the prior OS. Indeed, the Release Candidate of Windows 7 that is on the market today runs far smoother on current machines than Vista, and while Vista practically drags netbooks to a crawl, Win7 hums along just fine. That said, it seems that Microsoft is keeping its hopes in check with the impending release. We already know that many businesses will be holding off on the upgrade for some time, and given the current economic situation, we'd guess that many consumers will also hold off for awhile if at...
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Just in time to prepare for an upgrade to Windows 7, the U.S. Army is upgrading to ... Windows Vista.The upgrade will include getting rid of all the Office 2003 programs and installing Office 2007 in its place, and is scheduled for a Dec. 31 completion date. Half the Army's computers (they have 744,000 desktop units) have Office 2007 so far and 13 percent (44,000, more or less) are on Vista, which was released in January 2007. Windows 7 is supposed to launch before year's end, so the Army will be fully on Vista sometime after Microsoft's next generation OS is already launched.According to the Army's press release, First-time Vista users will discover added support for data encryption,...
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Microsoft took a gigantic leap into online entertainment this week with a new partnership with Netflix, the online/mail-order movie rental service. More than 12,000 movies and television episodes from Netflix can now be watched immediately on a PC that has Windows Media Center and runs Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Of course, you have to be a Netflix member first, but once you are, all you have to do is launch your Windows Media Center and click on the "Netflix" tile under "TV+Movies" to start watching streaming movies and TV shows. The primary advantage, Microsoft says, is that viewers won't have to jump from Hulu to CBS.com to wherever else they get their online entertainment; it's...
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Believe it or not, Windows 7 is about to take the computing world by storm. If all goes to plan, we'll see Microsoft's latest (and hopefully greatest) OS on store shelves by the time 2009 draws to a close, but it remains to be seen who all will be jumping to upgrade. According to Darrel Ward, director of product management for Dell's business client product group, he's not so sure that folks will be waiting with credit cards out to jump on the next-gen bandwagon. In a recent phone interview, he was quoted as saying that if there is "one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems...
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Really, Microsoft? Has it come to this? During last night's highly watched NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, Microsoft decided to buy pretty much every single ad slot from the first tip to the final basket in order to grab Apple by the collar, slap it around a time or two and then spit on it as it walked away. We've seen the Mac vs. PC ads getting more and more heated over the years, but this just sets a new bar. And we're not talking about said bar being "raised."For those who haven't seen it, here's the overview. A typical 20-something, named Lauren, is dressed and positioned to look like a stereotypical Mac user that would be found in one of Apple's older "Switch" commercials or even the newer...
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NVIDIA Collaborates with Microsoft to make premium, low-cost PCs a reality Microsoft Certifies NVIDIA ION to Deliver a Premium Windows Experience on PCs Starting as Low as $299 SANTA CLARA, CA - FEBRUARY 11, 2009 - In an effort to deliver an outstanding computing experience on small, low power PCs, NVIDIA announced today that NVIDIA ION has been Certified for Windows Vista. With NVIDIA ION and premium versions of Microsoft Windows, small form factor notebook and desktop PCs will have rich media capabilities and full graphics support for the first time.Microsoft Corp. has validated NVIDIA ION with certified Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) drivers for Windows Vista Home Premium. NVIDIA...
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Sadly, Vista isn’t all it was hyped up to be. Microsoft released its first service pack last March, which helped some in terms of improving the OS’s performance, but Microsoft still hasn’t been able to change the negative perceptions of many. In hopes of improvements, some are looking ahead to Service Pack 2. With any luck, this service pack will ship in April, according to TechARP: A confidential source has revealed that Microsoft will deliver a Release Candidate in February 2009 with the final SP2 binary scheduled for RTM (Release To Manufacturing) in April 2009. Even if Microsoft hits this target date, it’s important to remember that RTM status doesn’t mean the rest of us will get the service...
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