Maximum PC - Windows

New Android App Helps You Spot SOPA-Supporting Products

Ryan Whitwam — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:26:09 +0000

Up in arms about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)? Well, you’re not even close to alone, and a new Android app can help the more passive opponents do their part to express their rage. The Boycott SOPA app allows users to leverage their phone’s camera to make sure they aren’t buying any products that come from companies supporting SOPA.

Other barcode scanning apps just tell you how much a product is selling for online, but Boycott SOPA measures something different. Just scan a barcode, and Boycott SOPA reaches out to its product database and lets you know whether or not the item comes from a company that supports the bill. If the answer is ‘yes,’ the app will pop up a warning that the item is “intimately related to a SOPA supporting company.”

There is a history screen with a list of all your analyzed products with an icon reminding you how it fared. This might not stop Congress from making SOPA or Protect IP law, but you can at least put a little hurt on those who don’t stand for the stability and freedom of the Internet.

Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Crafting Guide

Tim Ferrill — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:03:12 +0000

If you’ve ever spent any time playing an RPG or RTS of any kind, you know the biggest learning curve is figuring out what items or materials you need to build that sweet piece of gear your buddy carries around. The different combinations, tools, and techniques required by different games can also add to the confusion. The reality is learning the build tree in a particular game is the key to your survival and is the biggest obstacle between you and world domination.

Age of Empires Online is the latest in Microsoft’s long line of Real-Time Strategy games. While not the most well-received RTS in history, the game is free to play and is worth a look for gamers on a budget. To aid in the learning curve of building items in Age of Empires Online, Microsoft has released Crafting Guide for Windows Phone 7. Crafting Guide provides you a searchable and sortable database of the items you can build within the Age of Empires game, and gives you the recipe or steps needed to build or acquire the item. You also have the option of entering the materials you have access to, and Crafting Guide will provide you with a selection of items you can build from the chosen materials.

Crafting Guide is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Microsoft Announces Web-Based Marketplace for Windows Phone

Tim Ferrill — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:13:22 +0000

In conjunction with the launch of Windows Phone 7.5 Microsoft has updated windowsphone.com. The new site includes a web-based Marketplace for Windows Phone. The new Marketplace allows you to browse and purchase apps from any PC without the need for software. As an additional benefit, the Marketplace provides a history of your app purchases, giving you an easy way to find apps that you've used in the past.

More than just another app store, the new windowsphone.com also acts as a central point for many of the services that integrate into the phone. Images and documents synched to SkyDrive, as well as your XBox Live avatar and gamer score are prominently displayed in the 'My Phone' area of the site. Microsoft even provides the ability to track your phone's location and gives you the option to ring, lock, or erase your phone in the unfortunate case that your device is lost or stolen.

The new features on windowsphone.com are freely available for all Windows Phone devices, not just those which have received the 7.5 update.

BUILD Conference: What We Know Now About Windows 8

Tim Ferrill — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:11:52 +0000

We share our updated impressions of Windows 8 from Microsoft's BUILD Conference

Day one of Microsoft’s BUILD Developer conference is over. Conference attendees have received their Samsung Developer Tablets, and information overload has set in. Though this event is specifically targeted at developers, there is a wealth of information for the consumer to digest. Let’s look at some of the key features we learned about today, as well as some that we’ve received more detail into.

Metro Apps

The number one difference you will see in Windows 8 is all about Metro Apps. If you’ve been following the evolution of Windows Phone 7 you won’t need much of an introduction to the Metro design language. Essentially the idea stems from Microsoft attempting to create consistent interface elements and controls across all of their platforms (Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone). The implementation of Metro Apps in Windows 8 certainly takes some cues from Windows Phone, but there are a number of new tricks in the Windows 8 bag. It is important to note that Windows 8 is not limited to Metro Apps, and many of the rules and new functionalities may not apply to classic Windows Applications running in the traditional Windows UI.

Live Tiles are extremely similar to the implementation in Windows Phone 7. For the uninitiated, Live Tiles are somewhere between static icons and widgets. These square or rectangular buttons can contain live data updated from whichever service or application they reference, providing at-a-glance updates for weather, sports scores, or stock prices without even entering the application.

Multitasking with Metro Apps is going to take some getting used to for Windows Power Users. Generally, Metro Apps are intended to run in full-screen mode, with minimal buttons or scrollbars (also known as chrome). Users can easily cycle between their open Metro Apps by swiping a finger from the left border of the screen towards the middle. If instead of swiping all the way to the center of the screen you stop short on the left side, you will be given the option to ‘dock’ the app to the side of the window, giving you access to two applications at once.

HTML5 support is on full display here at BUILD. The classic web languages of HTML and JavaScript are now full members of the Windows developer toolset. Metro Apps can be designed and built entirely using standard web technologies familiar to the multitude of web developers in the world.

Lock Screen

If you were concerned that Microsoft would lack attention to detail in Windows 8, look no further than the lock screen. The locked view is of a full-screen image of your choosing with ‘Glyphs’ that provide you with connection status and message count information. The UI to actually unlock your screen supports standard passwords and pins, as well as a sweet pattern-based system that allows you to use gestures against a picture. Demos of the lock screen included tapping on parts of the screen and tracing others. Very cool stuff, and very personal, which is one of Microsoft’s mantras with Windows 8.

Start Screen

The Start Screen in Windows 8 isn’t entirely new, as Microsoft has demonstrated it briefly over the last few months, but there were some additional features and functionalities demonstrated throughout the day. Unlike Windows Phone 7 Live Tiles can be grouped logically, providing an easy method to organize and prioritize your applications. Whole groups can be easily rearranged, increasing usability. One brilliant scenario was demonstrated, where the presenter used one finger to ‘grab’ a group of apps, and with another finger scrolled through to the opposite end of the Start Screen, where the application group was dropped into place.

Charms

More of a critical piece of the user interface than a real feature, ‘Charms’ are hidden on the right side of the Windows 8 Metro interface. Swiping from right to left on the extreme right border of the screen will activate the Charms menu, providing you access to Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. Don’t think of these as simple shortcuts, as that is most certainly selling them short. The Start Charm simply returns you to the Start Screen, and we haven’t seen the Devices Charm demonstrated yet, but the others provide some nifty functionality that is worth mentioning.

Search integrates deeply into Windows 8, and this post will not be able to cover the scope of this feature. Tapping the Search Charm will allow you to search both the device and the web in a single UI. Additionally, Metro Apps that have made their content available to the search function will show up in a list on the right side of the screen. Selecting one of these search-aware applications will focus the search to the confines of that individual application. This provides a consistent and simple method of finding content wherever it may be located.

Sharing is another integral part of the Windows 8 system. In the past individual applications required code to integrate with each service they wanted to connect with, a notion that is rendered obsolete in Windows 8 Metro Apps. Applications can register to either share content from the app or to accept content from another app to share with a service. Choosing the Share Charm from within an imaging application could give you access to photo sharing or social media apps which would allow you to easily post the content to the associated service.

Settings would seem like an area that didn’t need a lot of work, but Microsoft has ‘reimagined’ (a competitive square in buzzword bingo) the way Settings work and integrate into individual apps. Clicking the Settings Charm while in a video player will launch a context sensitive settings bar on the right side of the screen. Application specific settings will be listed at the top of the screen, while applicable system-wide settings will be listed at the bottom. This method again stresses Microsoft’s endeavor to create a consistent experience throughout the OS.

File Explorer

Metro Apps will make use of a new File Explorer which provides access to locally stored media and files, or files accessible on network shares or the HomeGroup. Microsoft also provides an avenue for services to deeply integrate into File Explorer, allowing you to browse pictures from your Facebook or Flickr account using the same UI you would use to browse your local hard drive.

Live Integration

Combining services into the File Explorer are just one of the functions provided by Windows 8’s integration with Windows Live. System settings, application preferences, and authenticated services are just a few of the items that can be automatically synchronized and configured on any machine you log into using your Windows Live ID. Windows Phone 7 users will be happy to hear that this also integrates fluidly with similar functionality on their mobile devices. If that weren’t enough, Windows Live allows for you to synchronize files to your SkyDrive, and will even allow you to remotely view files stored on your home or office PC.

System Reset

If you’ve ever experienced assisting a friend or family member restore their machine to working condition you will appreciate the built-in ability to reset Windows 8 PC’s to the default build state, either preserving the user’s files and settings or completely resetting everything.

Windows Store

Like it or not, the centralized Windows Store for software is here. The Windows Store is the clearinghouse for Metro Apps, but classic Windows software will also be available through the store. Metro Apps submitted to the Windows Store will go through a series of tests to verify stability and security, as well as making sure that the application developer isn’t attempting to do something malicious to your machine.

Sensors and Connectivity
(NFC, GPS, 3G, Sensitivity to Metered Data)

Windows 8 natively supports GPS and Accelerometers, sensors commonly found in smart phones and tablets. NFC (Near Field Communication) support is also baked in, providing capabilities that combine features of Bluetooth, RFID, and Bar Codes. Cellular Data connections over 3G are also native to Windows 8, giving you more control over how the PC should act differently over a metered data connection (not looking for software updates for example).

Performance

A baseline Windows 8 install uses less memory and runs fewer processes than a comparable Windows 7 SP1 machine, but a smaller footprint is just one of the ways Microsoft is looking for performance enhancements in Windows 8. Microsoft had previously demonstrated improved boot times with Windows 8, though we’re taking those with a grain of salt until we can test it ourselves. UEFI support is on full display, and promises to speed up boot times and provide enhanced security against pre-boot malware.

Conclusion

We’re fairly certain we haven’t done justice to the amount of information that was dumped on conference attendees today, and Microsoft isn’t done yet. Be aware that all of the demos are on Developer Preview builds of Windows 8, meaning we’re a long way from a final product.

Are there any features or changes that you’ve been waiting for? Has Windows 8 met your expectations so far? What would you like to see tweaked before the final release? Let us know in the comments.

How to Use Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Make Easy PC Guides

Alex Castle — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:42:58 +0000

Of the many new features introduced in Windows 7, the humble Problem Steps Recorder was one of the least talked-about. At first glance, the application—which combines an automatic screenshot utility and a sort of low-grade keylogger—appears to be nothing more than a tool to make life a little easier for Microsoft’s legion of support personnel. Upon closer inspection, there’s actually much more to the Problem Steps Recorder.

For one, you don’t have to be a Microsoft support rep to view the files created by the Problem Steps Recorder, which means that if your clueless friend insists that his PC doesn’t do what it’s supposed to, you can have him record his actions, and tell him where he went wrong. Even more interestingly, you can use the PSR on your own machine to quickly and easily create illustrated, annotated PC tutorials.

Step 1: Shrink Your Work Area

The Problem Steps Recorder punctuates every click you make with a screenshot, showing the entire desktop. If you’re running at a very high resolution, or with multiple monitors, these screenshots will be hard to follow along with, so start by disabling your secondary monitor, if you have one, and lowering the resolution to something like 1028x764. Awful, we know, but it’s only for a minute.

Step 2: Start the Problem Steps Recorder

In the tradition of all of Microsoft’s handiest utilities, the Problem Steps Recorder isn’t plainly visible in the Start menu. To run it, you’ll need to open the Run dialogue box by hitting Win + R, and then typing psr.exe (below, top). In a pinch, you can also search for PSR at the bottom of the Start menu.

The Problem Steps Recorder itself is pretty simple—just three buttons (above, bottom). You probably don’t need us to tell you that in order to begin your recording, you hit the Start Record button.

Step 3: Perform Your Action

Now, simply perform the action that you want to illustrate. Try to do it as economically as possible; the PSR records a new screenshot every single time you click the mouse button, so any unnecessary clicks will make the final guide file longer, larger, and more complicated than it needs to be.

If you want to elaborate on what you’re doing at any time, or explain some onscreen element, click the Add Comment button in the PSR. You’ll be prompted to select an area of the screen, and a dialogue box will pop up that allows you to enter a comment (above). Doing this will create another screenshot in the final guide file, with your comment and the area you selected highlighted.

Step 4: Share the Results

As soon as you hit the Stop button on the PSR, it will ask you where you want to store the .zip file it has created. Name it whatever you like, and put it wherever you want—this is what you’re going to share with the person who needs help. Email them the file or share it using a service like Dropbox.

Inside the zip archive, there will be just a single file, in the .mht format. Your system may not have a default association for .mht, but it’s just XML—you can open it with any modern browser (above). Explain to your friend how to extract and open the file (if only you could use the PSR for this!), and that’s it—an instant, nicely formatted how-to guide.

Cheat Sheet: 10 Banging Bing Tips

Seamus Bellamy — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:57:44 +0000

With the exception of a few yahoos, when most of us think about searching the web, we’re thinking about Google. While Mountain View may be able to fulfill the bulk of our search-related needs, there’s no harm in mixing it up a bit. When looking for an alternative to Google, you could do a lot worse than giving Bing a try. Only a few years old, Microsoft’s upstart information-seeking darling has managed to incorporate a number of user-friendly features into the service’s already impressive set of capabilities. Care to give Bing a spin? We’ve put together 10 of our favorite Bing tips for you to trick out your browsing experience with.

Why Regionalize When You Can Americanize?

As any fanboy will tell you, Superman’s powers are only realized when he is in the presence of a yellow star like the Sun. Bing’s got the same thing going on with the United States: While there are many Bing regionalized portals, only the one enjoyed by default in the U.S. unlocks all of the search engine's features. If you’re living in America, no doubt you’re already good to go. If you live outside of the country, chances are you’ll need to do a little ticker work in order to get all the goodness out of Redmond’s search engine offering. Navigate to Bing.com, and look to the top right of your browser window. Click the name of whatever country you see up there—chances are that if you live in Ireland, by default the country you’ll click on will be Ireland. Doing so will open a page filled up with the various locales that Bing caters to. Click on United States - English, or United States Spanish if you hablan español. Boom! Welcome to the U-S-of-A.

Downplay Bing’s Good Looks

It’s a little known fact that Bing’s user interface was designed with the mullet in mind: Business up front and party in the back. Sure, the search service’s pages are pretty, but all of those high-definition pictures can be something of a distraction when there’s hardcore searching to do (or searching for hardcore. We won’t judge you). To rid yourself of Bing’s colorful backgrounds, navigate here and savour Bing in all of it’s minimalistic grey, white and orange splendour. Dulling up the joint can save you a few kilobytes of data every time you load the page moving forward. That might seem like small potatoes, but it adds up over time. This is a great solution for road warriors with a limited cellular data plan or individuals with slower rigs purchased at the dawn of the millennium.

Deck Out Your Desktop

Can’t get enough of Bing’s gorgeous background imagery? Then you're really doing to dig Bing Downloader, a free jewel of a program that allows users to download those sexy Bing homepage backgrounds to their PCs. At this time, Bing Downloader is able to procure the background pictures from a wide variety of the search engine’s international portals including Canadian, American, Chinese, the United Kingdom and Germany. To snag yourself some new desktop wallpaper, simply locate Bing Downloader’s executable file, double click it and let the program run its course. For best results, fire up the program on a daily basis. In no time at all, you’ll have accrued a massive collection of Microsoft-approved background images to bend to your will. What you opt to do with them is entirely up to you.

Take to the Air

With Bing on your side, there’s no need to hop on an airline’s status page in order to find out whether or not your flight’s on time, cancelled or lost somewhere in the Bermuda triangle. Instead of entering your airline’s website URL, type Track Flight Status into Bing’s search field. At the top of your returned search results, you’ll find entry fields for your airline and flight number. Just pull the information off of your ticket or confirmation email, click Get Status and you’re in business.

If that’s not easy enough for you, simply enter your flight number, sans any other information. More times than not, Bing will understand what you’re getting at and provide you with the data you’re looking for courtesy of flightstats.com. While this might be great news for people that need to be on time for a flight, the flip-side of the coin is that thanks to Bing, you’ll never have an excuse for being late to pick up your in-laws at the airport again.

RSS to Impress

Being able to look up information on the web is great. Trying to read that information while away from your browser? Not so much. While you can opt to peruse your search results on another device with the help of services like Instapaper, Read It Later or Evernote by the time you get around to doing so, the results Bing returned to you might be cold. Instead, savvy Bing users might want to consider taking in their Bing searches in the form of a live RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed that can be viewed via any RSS reader. To rock this hack, simply add &format=rss to the tail end of any of the search results returned by Bing. Doing so will provide you with a live RSS feed version of your results that is automatically updated in real-time. Now that’s useful.

Search for Specific File Types

You are an important individual who considers their time to be a precious commodity. There’s not enough hours in the day to quibble over the masses of data that comes as a result of most web searches. Fortunately, Bing understands and endorses your picky data-scoffing ways. In an effort to keep you happy and provide discerning types such as yourself with only the most pertinent of information, Bing makes searching for particular file types online easy. If you know the information you’re looking for is contained in a PDF file, for example, type the topic of the file into Bing’s search field and add filetype:pdf to the search parameters. You’ll find that your search results contain only links that include PDF files. While this trick can be used with any just about any file extension, we’ve found Bing’s returned on searches for .mp3, .wpa and other oft-times DRM protected file types are pretty weaksauce.

Track a Package

In many parts of the world, sadomasochism has been an illegal practice for centuries. Luckily for those of you that derive pleasure from inflicting torment upon themselves, tracking a package over the internet was still a go the last time we checked. While you could waste your time navigating to your shipping company’s website and then hunting down the page’s tracking utility, if you’re looking for some immediate satisfaction, we suggest cutting to the chase by entering your package’s tracking number directly into Bing along with the shipping company’s name. For example, if Big Brown’s got your goods, you’d enter:

ups # [tracking number]

This trick works with the majority of the world’s major shipping companies. You’ll find the returned results to be as comprehensive as anything you’ll find on the FedEx, DHL or UPS’ websites. More than this, with all the time you’re saving on data entry can be used to get in some kinky kicks from other sources, like balancing your checkbook, getting your taxes done early, or comparing long distance rates.

Convert Sums Like a Champ

No matter whether it’s converting kilometres to miles, gallons to litres, or parsecs from a measurement of distance into one of speed—sometimes the math can escape us. Fortunately, Bing is more than willing to carry the two for its bleary-minded users. Using the search engine’s conversion capabilities is absolutely the bomb when it comes to planning your next Canadian road trip or sizing up the dimensions of a cabinet from Scandinavia to see if it’ll actually fit in your living room. To get the conversion party started, simply enter the measurement you’re being boggled by and the standard you’d like to see it converted to. For example, if you’re dying to what 5.65 cm works out to once converted over to the Imperial system of measurement, you would enter convert 5.65 cm to inches. The same trick can be applied to international currencies: to get the current exchange rate of a Canadian dollar to its U.S. Counter part, enter CAD to USD as a search.

Get Your Math On

Less ghetto than Windows 7’s baked-in calculator application and easier to find than that old TI-89 calculator of yours that’s been packed away in a box since your graduated from college, Bing’s built-in calculation capability is a reliable tool in the fight against confusing math equations. Similar in function to its Mountain View situated nemesis, Bing allows users to crunch numbers by entering their math questions as a search. For example, if you wanted to know where 47 multiplied by 33 would get you, you’d enter 47 * 33 and click the search icon. The search engine understands a wide variety number nerd operator mainstays such as percentages (% of), square roots (sqrt) and higher power (**). Need answers to some troubling equations? Bing’s got it going on, and can handle a respectable share of middle-of-the-road calculus and algebra computations.

Bing a-go-go

While Bing’s extensive functionality makes it a worthwhile addition to anyone’s laptop or desktop internet search toolbox, the search service also offers up some pretty impressive search functionality for use on smartphones and dumbphones alike. By accessing Bing via your handset’s web browser, you’ll be able to utilize all of the the same search functions we’ve talked about in this article from anywhere you can pick up a cellular signal. If you happen to be rocking an Android or iOS device, you can also opt to download the service’s free application. For those out there who refuse to take part in the smartphone revolution, Microsoft also offers a lesser known Bing 411 phone number that can be called from any landline or cellular telephone. Just dial 1 (800) Bing-411, and you’ll be given voice driven access to, street addresses, movie time and up to the minute weather information, as well as other sweet features such as turn-by-turn navigation over the line—a definite bonus for folks without a GPS receiver.

Windows Phone 7 Device Unlock Tool to be Sanctioned by Microsoft

Tim Ferrill — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:12:21 +0000

Power users looking to get the most out of their Windows Phones have something special to look forward to. ChevronWP7 is a utility that allows consumers to developer unlock their Windows Phone 7 devices. This provides the capability to side-load applications to the phone without going through the Marketplace, as well as providing lower level access to things like the system registry. Typically this functionality requires a $99 per year subscription to Microsoft’s App Hub.

The ChevronWP7 team made big news in December when Microsoft invited them to Redmond to “engage in further discussions with us about officially facilitating homebrew development on WP7.” Today Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, and Long Zheng have announced that they are preparing to launch an approved Windows Phone unlocking service. Though a small fee will be involved the team has promised that the cost will be more affordable than the App Hub. A firm price has not been announced at this time.

Providing options for the homebrew community could be a major selling point for Windows Phone, as many consumers prefer a competing platform like Google’s Android due to the open nature of their devices. This announcement opens up many possibilities on the future of software and apps for Windows Phone. Being able to load software without having it go through Microsoft’s approval process could provide an avenue for open source software to make its way onto the devices. Advanced customization on the Windows Phone platform is currently very limited, which could also change with this type of solution.

For more information and updates you can follow @ChevronWP7 on Twitter.

Where Does Spam Come From?

Rachel Swaby, Gizmodo — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:38:12 +0000

Typically our electronic exchanges flow from person to person, one real email address to another. But the sad fact is, the vast majority of messages sent don't have anything to do with managing relationships, workloads, or weekend plans. Spaaaaaaam!

According to Dave Marcus at McAfee Labs, 80-90 percent of email floating between servers is spam. Luckily, much of what's aimed for us is deflected. Email programs employ filters to direct messages with suspicious links and attachments away from our inboxes, which is good because these messages have the potential to infect our computers or dupe us into coughing up personal information.

We know all this.

But there's another flavor of suspicious email that doesn't betray its malicious intent as openly: the single line of gibberish. Is it an email verification technique? Is there something coded into the message that could harm my computer? Did someone let their two year old loose on the Internet? So we decided to look into it. What are those nonsensical emails trying to do to us anyway?

In order for spammers to even attempt something nefarious, they need to reach an actual human. No brilliant Facebook imitation email will do any good without a real person with a Facebook account entering in their information. So step one in any would-be scam is to verify that an address leads to a pair of eyes.

Sure, an email that bounces back to the spammer didn't make it to a real recipient. But spam folders hide a lot of email from our eyes that don't get bounced back either. So a non-ricocheted message doesn't guarantee a human either. Man, spammin' is so hard!

The sender also doesn't get any information if you just open an email—thankfully, reading a note doesn't ping the spammer with a "verified account" message. In fact, the only way for a sender to get a receipt is to request one. Some mail programs allow senders to add a receipt request to a message, which—only if you decide to play along—will notify the sender that you got their mail. That would be the most obvious set up, um, ever. Hey, can you click this box if you opened this message because I'd like to steal your identity. Yes? Rad!

What the nonsense message is likely fishing for is a reply—something like, Hey, your message came through garbled. Is there something I can help you with? At least that's what Dave Marcus from McAfee Labs thinks is up. "They could be testing out the company's spam filters, but I think they're just looking to get you to respond to it." A response means a real person. Most likely, spammers are hoping for a holler back from the uninitiated—the ones that worry an important message was damaged in the mail. Hey, it happens in real life...

Spam Bustin'

If you're getting emails that contain nothing but gibberish, feel free to ignore them. The message will remain benign unless you play along. But for taking on spam as a whole, here are a few tips to keep you safe and your inbox clean:

1. The email program you use matters. "Gmail is really good at filtering spam email out," says McAfee's Dave Marcus. Hotmail, not so much. It's all about the algorithm.

2. Recognize that current events are used as lures. "When there's a high interest news event, spammers will pretend to have videos with bin Laden getting shot," says Marcus. "When you click through, malware will be installed or the site will drop a bot on your machine." The aim is identity theft.

3. Don't open unsolicited emails. If you abstain completely, you wont be tempted to click on some awesome-sounding-but-evil link or attachment.

4. Type links directly into your browser instead of clicking them in-email. If an unknown sender floats you a link for Japan relief aid, you're better off just searching the same thing in your web browser. At least then you're in the driver's seat.

Gizmodo is the world’s most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd.

Microsoft Announces First Real Details About Windows 8

Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:59:14 +0000

So, this is the new Start screen for Windows 8. It looks a lot like Windows Phone Live Tiles. And hey, that looks like an app store.

The whole point of Windows 8, which is just a codename, is to be one OS that'll run on regular computers or on tablets. So Windows 8 will run two kinds of applications: A standard Windows application ("It's Windows. Everything just runs," says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky) and an almost mobile-like app, written in HTML5 and JavaScript, which Microsoft is calling a "new platform." And of course, there's IE10 underpinning those apps. All apps can be viewed in this tile-based UI, which Josh from TIMN says is, "Very impressive. It looks super fast." You can totally see the Windows Phone influence on the interface, from the tiles to the touch keyboard, which even has a "thumbs" mode. (Sinofsky tells All Things D, "We were clearly influenced ourselves by phones.") The animations and gestures and multitasking are all pretty damn smooth looking, as you can see in this demo video.

Better still, it requires fewer resources than Windows 7, which is kind of crazy. Which all sounds great. And sort of what I expected. What sounds (and looks) a little dicey is that the awesome, modern tile UI is basically just a skin over Windows. The rest of the "classic Windows desktop" is still there, looking underneath, albeit adjusted to be more touch friendly with "fuzzy hit targeting," so regular Windows applications will work with touch or keyboard/mouse. But the two things together looks like a miscreant experience, even in Microsoft's demo. The idea of running real, full Windows apps on a tablet (or anywhere) isn't a bad one, but it looks pretty gross and weird in practice.

We'll apparently see a lot more in September at Microsoft's Build conference.

Microsoft's official list of new features shown off today:

• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.

• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.

• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.

• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.

• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.

• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10

We're following Microsoft demo, live, (so expect this post to be changed and updated with more stuff).

Gizmodo is the world’s most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd.

End-User Downgrade Rights to Windows XP Extended until 2020

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:17:38 +0000

The Windows 7 juggernaut has little regard for impediments, but it does have a soft spot for an elderly cognate that refuses to die: Windows XP. Microsoft marked the availability of the public beta for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) by extending the end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP until 2020, even though the previous deadline for their expiry was set at Windows 7 SP1.

End-user downgrade rights let businesses use a prior version of Windows on new machines until they are ready to transition to the latest version. Only OEM copies of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista Professional. According to Microsoft, the move is meant to “provide customers and partners with more predictability around the lifecycle of Windows.”

Apparently, its business customers feared that removing end-user rights could lead to confusion. “Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7,” Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc wrote in a blog post yesterday.

Maximum PC - Windows

New Android App Helps You Spot SOPA-Supporting Products

Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Crafting Guide

Microsoft Announces Web-Based Marketplace for Windows Phone

BUILD Conference: What We Know Now About Windows 8

We share our updated impressions of Windows 8 from Microsoft's BUILD Conference

Metro Apps

Lock Screen

Start Screen

Charms

File Explorer

Live Integration

System Reset

Windows Store

Sensors and Connectivity(NFC, GPS, 3G, Sensitivity to Metered Data)

Performance

Conclusion

How to Use Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to Make Easy PC Guides

Step 1: Shrink Your Work Area

Step 2: Start the Problem Steps Recorder

Step 3: Perform Your Action

Step 4: Share the Results

Cheat Sheet: 10 Banging Bing Tips

Why Regionalize When You Can Americanize?

Downplay Bing’s Good Looks

Deck Out Your Desktop

Take to the Air

RSS to Impress

Search for Specific File Types

Track a Package

Convert Sums Like a Champ

Get Your Math On

Bing a-go-go

Windows Phone 7 Device Unlock Tool to be Sanctioned by Microsoft

Where Does Spam Come From?

Spam Bustin'

Microsoft Announces First Real Details About Windows 8

End-User Downgrade Rights to Windows XP Extended until 2020

Sensors and Connectivity
(NFC, GPS, 3G, Sensitivity to Metered Data)