Windows

Windows Blue upgrades may be shown in leaked videos

Leaked videos that hit the Web today hint at a host of possibilities for Microsoft's next Windows release, codenamed Blue. Not only does it look like there might be improvements across the operating system, but also the speech recognition feature in Windows Phones could get a noteworthy upgrade.

The videos come via MSFTKitchen, which got its hands on internal videos from Microsoft's TechFest event a couple of weeks ago.

In the video that is presumably about Microsoft Blue, the company's chief technical strategy officer Eric Rudder hints that Microsoft has plans to boost their touch feature on … Read more

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 heads to users March 19

As Microsoft marches toward its early April 2013 end-of-free-support deadline for Windows 7, the company is planning to update automatically some of those who still have yet to install the first (and seemingly only) Service Pack for the operating system.

As announced yesterday on the Microsoft "Blogging Windows" blog, Microsoft plans to begin rolling out Windows 7 SP1 automatically, via Windows Update to Windows 7 users who still are running the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version without SP1 installed. This process will begin on March 19.

From the blog post:

Starting tomorrow, the installation will be fully automatic with … Read more

Microsoft's latest patches address new USB hack

A new kind of vulnerability popped up recently, one that lets hackers stick a USB thumb drive into a computer -- even if it's logged-off or locked -- type out a bit of attack code and steal whatever data they want.

In an effort to avoid this type of cyberattack, Microsoft issued its monthly software patches today and included a fix for this Windows vulnerability called MS13-027. This vulnerability lets a hacker get into the computer with a thumb drive and take over administrative privileges.

"When the Windows USB device drivers enumerate the device, parsing a specially crafted … Read more

Microsoft backs away from Flash ban in IE10

An about-face in Internet Explorer 10 shows Microsoft is not merely backing off from its hostility toward Flash Player, but actually warming up to the Adobe Systems browser plug-in for competitive reasons.

In September 2011, Microsoft declared that browser plug-ins are a relic from the Internet's early days, calling them bad for battery life, security, reliability, and privacy, and said that it would ban them when IE10 was running with Windows 8's Metro user interface, now called the "immersive UI."

But Microsoft gave Flash a reprieve in May 2012 by building a special version of Adobe'… Read more

Microsoft offers Kinect code samples under open source

Microsoft is continuing a push to turn its Kinect motion-sensing game controller into a natural user-interface device for PCs, by sharing samples of the Kinect for Windows code under an open source license.

The idea is to give developers the opportunity to reuse the code and help Microsoft figure out how to improve it, Ben Lower, Kinect for Windows developer community manager, wrote in a blog post last week.

The company has posted 22 samples -- including code for face tracking, its skeletal viewer, and slideshow gestures -- in C#, C++, and Visual Basic. The code is available under an … Read more

Microsoft to patch critical holes in IE, Office, Silverlight

Windows users will get the usual round of security patches from Microsoft next Tuesday.

Among the seven fixes due to roll out March 12, four are rated critical, which means they address flaws that could let an attacker execute malware on a remote PC by steering a user to a malicious Web site or e-mail link.

The patch for Internet Explorer is designed to shore up all versions from IE6 to IE10 across all iterations of Windows from XP to Windows 8 and RT. The patch for Microsoft's Silverlight, a browser plug-in that can display online videos and other … Read more

Microsoft cuts Windows 8 OEM prices to spur demand -- WSJ

Microsoft is aiming to amp up demand for Windows 8 notebooks by offering manufacturers a discount on the operating system, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Based on comments from "people familiar with the situation," the Journal yesterday said that Microsoft is trimming OEM (original equipment manufacturer) prices for Windows 8 and Office 2012. The goal is to encourage device makers to develop smaller, touch-based laptops designed for the latest Windows version.

Sales of Windows 8 computers have been weak since the OS debuted last October. Conventional desktops and most laptops still lack the touch screens needed to … Read more

Staples: Snag $400 by swapping old gadget for Windows 8 device

Staples in dangling a $400 trade-in deal to steer customers toward Windows 8 devices.

How does it work? The retailer's "Trade up to touch" Web page explains the process.

You first have to buy a Windows 8 touch device from Staples. It can be an all-in-one PC, a notebook, or a tablet, but it must be one of the qualifying items on the retailer's list. The list includes all-in-ones from Hewlett-Packard and Dell, laptops from Lenovo and Asus, and the various flavors of Microsoft's Surface RT and Pro tablets.

You then identify the device that … Read more

Windows 8 swells to 2.7% of OS market

Windows 8 is winning over more users, but it's doing so at a snail's pace.

Microsoft's latest OS took home 2.67 percent of all global traffic seen by Web tracker NetApplications last month. That put it in fourth place among all operating system versions, just ahead of Mac OS X 10.8 and behind Windows Vista.

But that was only a slight rise from January's figure of 2.26 percent, which itself jumped from 1.72 percent in December and 1.09 percent in November.

Windows 7 remained in first place though its share was … Read more