Work Folders: a new feature of Windows 8.1
If you browse the (desktop) control panel on a Windows 8.1 system you may notice a new entry there that you may not have seen before. Work Folders is listed there only […]
Microsoft reveals Windows 8.1 pricing, brings back full retail versions
Microsoft announced the pricing and packaging of the upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system today. According to the announcement, Windows 8.1 will be available for $119.99, and Windows 8.1 Pro for $199.99 both […]
Disable the help stickers in Windows 8.1
One of the things that Microsoft has improved in terms of teaching users the new functionality of the Windows 8 operating system are tutorial arrows that the operating system displays to the […]
The major changes in Windows 8.1
Microsoft did another 180 yesterday by releasing Windows 8.1 early to MSDN and Technet subscribers. The company planned initially to make the new version of Windows available to subscribers at the same […]
Microsoft caves in: Windows 8.1 Final available to MSDN and Technet Subscribers
Microsoft's announcement that it would not make available the first big update of Windows 8 early to Technet or MSDN subscribers was heavily criticized by the majority of tech sites. It meant […]
How to install Windows 8.1 RTM on a Windows 8.1 Preview system
Back when Microsoft announced the public release of the Windows 8.1 Preview operating system, a beta test version of the upcoming update for its Windows 8 system, the company made it clear […]
Surprise: Windows 8's usage share jumped in August 2013
Usage share statistics provide us with information how well a certain product fares after it enters a market. This is true for new web browsers but also operating systems. Microsoft released the […]
Lenovo shipping Windows 8 PCs with Pokki's software suite: good or bad idea?
Windows 8 is probably not the "big hit" that Microsoft hoped the operating system would be. There is no single factor why that is the case: a declining PC market, the strong […]
Amiga and Gameloft games coming to Windows Phone and Windows 8
My weekly series that covers the best new Windows 8 apps in a given week over at Betanews has been quite depressing the last two weeks. App growth in the US store […]
Windows 8.1 to be released officially on October 17
You will have to wait another two months before you can install the final Windows 8.1 update on existing Windows 8 machines or buy computer systems that ship with it pre-installed. Many […]
How DPI Scaling works in Windows 8.1
Most Windows users probably do not bother with their operating system's DPI scaling settings at all. The setting determines how items on the screen are displayed which is independent from the screen […]
Is Windows RT done?
When Microsoft announced that it would ship the Windows 8 operating system in two flavors, Windows 8 and Windows RT, it was clear that this would cause confusion. The main reason for […]
Set up quiet hours without notifications in Windows 8.1
Notifications play a big part in Windows 8, even more so than in previous versions of the operating system, as many apps that you can install from Windows Store make use of […]
One feature that I really like in Windows 8.1
So, I have been playing around with the preview of Windows 8.1 for some time now. While it is not the hoped-for 180, it introduces several new features or improvements that make […]
Beware of deceptive apps in Windows Store
Back in June I mentioned that Windows Store had its fair share of what I called then media player spam. This referred to dozens of media player apps that were designed to […]
How to terminate apps in Windows 8.1
Windows 8 users who are running apps from time to time on their system know that they can be closed completely by moving the mouse cursor to the top of the page, […]
10 Windows 8.1 Tips to get you started
Microsoft released a preview of Windows 8.1 yesterday which interested users can install on their systems. It is not really recommended to do so on productive systems, considering that you will lose […]
The Windows 8.1 Store is impractical
With today's Windows 8.1 preview release by Microsoft comes a series of updates to several core features of the Windows 8 operating system. Among them a store update that made the store […]
The Top 5 Windows 8.1 features I'm looking forward to
You know that I have been running Windows 8 on my second PC ever since Microsoft released the first public preview version of the operating system. While it is not my primary […]
Microsoft: please do something against Media Player spam in Windows Store
Windows MediaPlayer 11 for $4.99? VLC* Player for $8.99? Media Player Classic Black Edition for $4.99? Those are just three examples of Windows 8 apps that try to take advantage of the […]
What you need to know about the Windows 8.1 Preview
Microsoft will release a preview of the upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system upgrade on June 26. It is a public beta version of sorts that interested Windows 8 users can install on […]
8Smoker Pro is a comprehensive Windows 8 tweaking software
Increasingly powerful computer systems and all-time low memory prices have made tweaking software programs obsolete for many users. If you work on a system with 4, 8, 16 or even more Gigabytes […]
Display more apps in Windows Store
You may know that Windows Store, the store included in Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, is available as localized versions. If you are from Germany, you get apps for the German store […]
Microsoft confirms Windows 8.1 features, announces Internet Explorer 11
The Internet rumor mill is buzzing with noise ever since Microsoft announced that it would release an update for Windows 8 this year. Windows Blue, or Windows 8.1, is not a service […]
Microsoft's newest mouse has a start screen button
Microsoft announced the new Sculpt Comfort Mouse and Sculpt Mobile Mouse today on the Windows Experience blog. I'm usually not someone who is writing about untested hardware but the Sculpt Comfort Mouse […]
Why Windows 8's 100 million license milestone is not the same as Windows 7's
When it comes to Windows 8, Microsoft has only made two announcements so far in regards to how many licenses the company's most recent operating system has sold. Back in January 2013 […]
What does 'Kiosk Mode' mean to Windows 8.1?
Yesterday the latest build of Windows "Blue" leaked out onto the web in the form of build 9374. These build leaks have provided such publicity for the company over the years that […]
Windows 8.1 may include a straight to the desktop setting
There are two main points of criticism in regards to Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system. First the missing start menu which has been more or less replaced with the start screen, and […]
How to display the Windows 8 product key
If you have bought a PC that shipped with Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system preinstalled you may have noticed that it did not ship with a product key label that your previous […]
Windows App Boss: uninstall apps from the desktop in Windows 8
If you are using Windows 8 or have tested it for some time you have probably tested a few Windows Store apps to get a feel for what they have to offer […]
Windows 8: Mail, Calendar and People app no longer sync with Google
Windows 8 users who have been actively using the Calendar app of the operating system may be in for a surprise if they have configured the app to sync data with their […]
Windows Blue: Windows 7 File Recovery option gone
One of the many new features that Microsoft added to Windows 7 was a new backup and recovery feature that users of the operating system could make use of to backup files […]
Windows Blue build with minor improvements leaks
Rumors about Microsoft's strategy for the next version of Windows was all we had until recently. Some job postings highlighted that Microsoft is working on Windows 9 and Windows Blue. From the […]
ImmersiveTaille: Windows 8 start screen on the desktop
You have a couple of options to improve how you interact with Windows 8's start screen and the apps that run on it. You can naturally use the way Microsoft envisioned users […]
You can now remove ads from all Windows 8 apps
Windows 8 apps can be monetized in different ways. They may require you to pay money up front, use in-app purchases to make money, or display ads instead to you while you […]
ModernMix: Make Windows 8 better by running apps on the desktop
We have seen attempts before to bring Windows 8 apps to the desktop of the operating system. RetroUI Pro can do that for instance but all implementations up until now did not […]
Steam survey shows Windows 8 on the rise, beats XP
There are not many reliable sources for operating system market share trends. Microsoft for instance does not reveal those information even though it could, and usage trend sites like W3schools or Net […]
Metro Scaler: Scale Windows 8's start screen to different resolutions
You probably know that Microsoft is limiting what is being displayed on Windows 8's start screen in several ways. The screen resolution of the system determines the number of rows and columns […]
Fixing Error Code 0x80073cf9 in Windows 8
Every week I'm spending time in Windows 8's store to discover new apps for my weekly column over at Betanews. I look through all new apps that have been released in the […]
How to open the control panel in Windows 8
Opening the control panel is a pretty straightforward process in all versions of Windows except Windows 8. You simply click on Start and select Control Panel and *bam* there you have it. […]
