vista

Switch your switching

Alt-Tab is a useful Windows keyboard shortcut that lets users view a list of open windows and tab quickly among them. The Alt-Tab dialog is definitely more function than form, though; it's just a gray box with icons representing each window, and the windows' names appear as you tab through them. VistaSwitcher takes the Alt-Tab function and jazzes it up a bit. Though this program isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, it's a definite improvement if you're a frequent Alt-Tabber.

When VistaSwitcher is running it appears unobtrusively as an icon in … Read more

Windows 7 continues to gain ground on Vista

Nearing its first birthday, Microsoft's Windows 7 is starting to grab more customers than its predecessor, Vista, according to new stats released Wednesday by Net Applications.

For the month of August, Windows 7 grew to take in a 15.87 percent share of devices accessing the Internet, while Vista dropped to 14 percent. That's only the second month in which Windows 7 started to outshine Vista. In July, the newest flavor of Windows grabbed 14.46 percent of the market, compared with Vista's 14.34 percent share, according to Net Applications.

Microsoft's push to convince customers … Read more

Windows 95 turns 15: Has Microsoft's OS peaked?

It was 15 years ago that Microsoft had one of its most successful launches ever--introducing Windows 95. The company managed to get people to line up for hours to be among the first to get their hands on a copy.

The company paid to treat people to free newspapers in London, lighted the Empire State Building in Windows' colors, and draped Toronto's CN Tower with a 300-foot banner--all part of a massive $300 million ad campaign that accompanied the product's arrival.

Windows 95, which was separate from the company's business-oriented Windows NT product, added a number of … Read more

Windows 7 passes Vista in usage

In less than a year on the market, Windows 7 is now being used more than predecessor Windows Vista, according to market researcher Netmarketshare.

For July, Windows 7 was used on 14.46 percent of devices accessing the Internet, compared with Windows Vista's 14.34 percent, marking the first time the newer version surpassed its predecessor. Microsoft has said that 175 million copies of Windows 7 have been purchased since the product was released last fall.

Windows XP is still the most-used operating system, used by more than twice as many users as Vista and Windows 7 combined. Windows … Read more

Microsoft extends Windows XP downgrade rights

Microsoft has decided to give businesses some more time to move off of Windows XP.

Until now, those buying new PCs with Windows 7 Ultimate or Windows 7 Professional have had the option to downgrade those machines to Windows XP. Microsoft had said this option would end 18 months after the release of Windows 7, or with the shipping of Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which entered beta on Monday. Had that happened, those buying machines after that date would only have had the option to run either Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

However, Microsoft backtracked on Monday, acknowledging customer … Read more

Microsoft: Windows 7 makes 64-bit headway

The choice between the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7 appears to be shifting toward the latter.

With the new operating system less than nine months old, 46 percent of all computers running Windows 7 are using the 64-bit edition, said Microsoft in a Thursday blog post. That compares with 11 percent for the 3.5-year-old Windows Vista.

The major benefit to running a 64-bit OS is that it can address more memory. A 32-bit version of Windows can see only up to 4GB of RAM, and effectively use only around 3GB, since that extra gigabyte is reserved. A … Read more

iPhone 4 system requirements questioned

Digging into the iPhone Atlas mailbag, Brandon from Atlanta wonders why iPhone 4 requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 when it can operate on a Windows machine still running Windows XP.

"I tried to activate my iPhone yesterday from my Mac, which is 4 years old and running 10.4.11. The iPhone needs 10.5.8 or higher. If I use a PC I can use XP, Vista, or Windows 7."

On the surface this looks like a major flaw in Apple's planning for releasing iPhone 4. As Brandon mentions later in his e-mail to … Read more

Start over with a clean Vista installation

Windows 7 has done wonders for Microsoft's reputation, which was seriously tarnished by the ice cold reception that greeted Vista, Windows 7's predecessor. That's the conclusion of the 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is compiled annually by the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the American Society for Quality, and the CFI Group.

According the ACSI results released Tuesday, Microsoft's customer satisfaction score jumped 8.9 percent in the past year to 76 (on the survey's 100-point scale). That's higher than Microsoft has scored on the survey in the last … Read more

Original Vista reaches end of support

The original release of Windows Vista reached the end of its support on Tuesday, meaning that customers now need to be running either Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 of Vista to get assistance from Microsoft.

However, in conjunction with this milestone, Microsoft did make a subtle adjustment to its support policy, easing the hard deadline a bit. Under the new policy, Microsoft support staff are allowed to make their "best effort" to provide limited troubleshooting to customers running unsupported service packs, even if they don't have a custom support contract.

"Under the former service … Read more