Microsoft

As expected and according to Microsoft's Windows lifecycle page, Windows 7 mainstream support officially ended on January 13, 2015. It means there will be no more significant updates to the Windows 7 operating system, other than security updates. ... The end of mainstream support is in line with Microsoft's general policy of offering support for its operating systems five years after being released, followed by extended support for a further five years. The only exception to this policy was Windows XP, where the total support period lasted for 13 years. That was largely because the system ... (view more)

HP has unveiled a Windows 8.1 mini desktop computer that's only two inches tall and costs under $200. It's part of an ongoing campaign to battle Google by producing cheap Windows computers. The Stream Mini Desktop is just under six inches square and ... weighs only 1.6 pounds. It's a small, self-contained box with two USB ports, video outputs for HDMI and DisplayPort, an audio socket, an SD card reader, and an Ethernet port for connecting to a network. At the time of writing, it does not appear to have a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection, though one could easily add a USB Wi-Fi dongle to ... (view more)

Unconfirmed rumors suggest Windows 10 may be free of charge for people already on Windows 8.1. An announcement may be coming later this month to clarify the pricing structure. Meanwhile, Microsoft has confirmed that only people on Windows 7 or later ... will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 directly, while those users running Windows XP or Vista will need to carry out a fresh install. The pricing rumors stem from a report by the Softpedia website. It's generally considered credible, but is only citing its source on the pricing structure as "some people close to the matter." ... (view more)

Reports suggest Microsoft is working on a new web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Both the scope and timescale of any changes have not yet been confirmed, but it's suggested the launch will coincide with the release of Windows 10. ... Most rumors reference two codenames for the project: Trident and Spartan. The two names refer to the same strategy: to make Microsoft's web browser better and easier to use on modern websites, while still being able to run web pages designed for legacy systems. Trident is the web browser engine which already exists and is part of Internet ... (view more)

Microsoft has released a Windows 10 Preparation Tool designed to integrate Windows 7 and 8 computers for testing Windows 10 more easily. The tool also coincides with a big update to Windows 10 Technical Preview which is due January next year, and ... will include many features that are most important to home computer users. (Source: winbeta.org ) Currently, Windows 10 is in its Technical Preview stage. That means many features are new and being tested by thousands of people, and the operating system itself is not fully functional. In all likelihood, the Technical Preview is full of bugs and has ... (view more)

The first consumer features of Windows 10 -- albeit very much still in test mode -- may be just a few weeks away from public unveiling. Recent leaks suggest that the virtual assistant Cortana may be extremely prominent in the new system. Cortana is ... a voice recognition feature already present in Windows Phones and works somewhat similar to Apple's Siri and Google Now. The Windows 10 Consumer Edition Preview is expected to officially roll out to public testers in late January, 2015; some analysts suggest it will likely be on January 21st, as that is the date of Microsoft's next press event. ( ... (view more)

Microsoft has warned that a recently released security update may be incompatible with test editions of Windows 10 and MS Office . The advice came from Gabe Aul, who is general manager of engineering for Windows. He posted a series of four messages ... on his Twitter account, rather than posting it onto Microsoft's official news blog. The messages read: "We just made a tough call after working through the night that I thought I should share with you. We have a security update going out today, and the installer fails on [Windows 10 build 9879 if Microsoft Office] is installed. Rather than ... (view more)

Dell President Renee James says Windows 10's impact on the struggling PC market will be huge, with the release of Microsoft's next operating system (OS) leading to an estimated 600 million PC upgrades. James, who recently spoke at the Credit Suisse ... Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, says there are hundreds of millions of PCs out there that are four years old or older. James says that many of the owners of these aging PCs have been putting off an upgrade because they simply weren't wowed by Microsoft's last operating system, Windows 8. Microsoft Being " ... (view more)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is selling two Windows 8 laptops that are both priced at $199 . It's seen by some analysts as a way to counter the low-cost Google Chromebook range . The two models are the HP Stream 11 and Stream 13 , which model numbers are ... respective of their screen sizes. The Stream 11 has a permanent price of $199; the Stream 13 is normally $229 but will have $30 off for a limited period as part of the Black Friday sales season. To sweeten the deal, devices purchased directly from Microsoft will also receive a year's subscription to Office 365 Personal (the online edition of ... (view more)

Microsoft is facing a storm of protest over its decision to remove a popular feature from its OneDrive cloud storage service. The change is set to take shape when the company's next operating system, Windows 10 , is released next year. In Windows ... 8.1, OneDrive shows ' smart files ', otherwise known as ' placeholders ' stored on the cloud, but not available on a local device. If a user decides they want to view or edit that file and double click on it, OneDrive begins to download the file to local storage. The advantage of smart files is simple: they let users view the entire contents of ... (view more)