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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