Free Republic

Windows 10 is already seeing early signs of success in the enterprise field, as more and more companies are looking at the new operating system and evaluating a possible upgrade in the coming months.That’s what research firm Gartner explains when looking at adoption figures in the enterprise field for both Windows 10 and Windows 7, saying that the new OS easily outclasses its predecessors.Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans has told CW in an interview that the enterprise market has changed the way it prepares for upgrades now that Windows 10 is available, asking questions that are more related to the...

Microsoft announced that Windows 10 has become a recommended update for Windows users. Windows 10 will no longer be a required update for users to upgrade to. Although some users have encountered problems with the new operating system, Windows 10 surpassed both Windows XP and 8.1 in terms of the number of users who now use the operating system. Windows 7 still has the most number of users.Beta News reported Microsoft has been accused of pushing Windows 10 on users, and users complained that it was being automatically downloaded to their computers without their permission. Microsoft sought to silence...

Windows 10 has surpassed Windows XP to become the second most-used operating system in the world. NetMarketShare figures from January show Microsoft's latest version is running on 11.85 percent of global PCs, edging out Windows XP, which runs on 11.42 percent of machines. The news will be a boost to Microsoft as it aims to get as many people to upgrade as possible. Microsoft wants 1 billion devices running the operating system globally in 2018. To reach this goal, the company is offering free upgrades to customers running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 for Windows 10's first year of availability....

On Thursday, February 4, Satya Nadella will celebrate his second anniversary as the CEO of Microsoft. It's been an eventful couple of years. Microsoft has grown its crucial cloud business, released Windows 10 to a much better reception than its loathed predecessor, launched a bunch of great apps for iPhone and Android, and generally made people like it a lot more. But the real victory of Satya Nadella — the truly monumental shift — has been within the company. Under Nadella, Microsoft is pointed in one direction for first time in modern memory.

I cannot access my recipes, documents, etc...because Windows 10 cannot communicate with the mothership

Hey, guys! I've encountered problem with my new laptop (courtesy of the wife!) that I've not encountered before. It's got me stumped, and I can't save any files because of it. When clicking on Save or Save As, I get an immediate pop-up, "adownloader", which unapologetically says, "Cannot create file"C:\Users\Dolt\Downloads\Data\FRED\Population data\LFWA64TTUM647N:\1453506086945.DownloadFile". The filename, directory name,or volume label syntax is incorrect." Note that "Dolt" has been substituted for my user name! I cannot move past this. I've Googled it, to no avail. I'm loathe to use registry cleaners, as they often cause more problems than they solve. Can anyone out there...

Microsoft just dropped a bombshell. Older versions of Windows will not be supported on the newest chips from Intel and others. The crux of a statement from Terry Myerson, executive vice president at Microsoft, is that new processors won't run older versions of Windows reliably -- and won't be supported. "Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support," Myerson wrote, in a blog post addressed to "enterprise customers," aka, businesses. So, in the future, don't expect to be able to run Windows 7, for example, on the newest...

Microsoft is working with Intel, AMD, nVidia, and Qualcomm to support Windows 10 at a chipset level, effectively killing the future of Windows 7 and 8. The changes, which were announced in a company blog post, are the next step in Microsoft's big push to get everyone, from personal users to businesses, onto the latest version of the operating system. The partnership with the chip makers is surprising, as cutting support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on future PCs could adversely affect sales. "Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that...

In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel's Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months. Enterprise customers are still the bulwark of Microsoft's Windows business, in both the client and server segments. Historically, those customers have also been among the most conservative, lagging years behind the latest releases of an operating system release. Those practices have been encouraged by Microsoft's support lifecycle, which offers a generous ten years of support for each Windows...

Microsoft made this totally stupid change to its Windows support policy. With no notice, older versions of Windows lose support on the latest PC hardware. Yep, that's right: You can't run Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake CPUs (or later). There's a woolly, limited get-out-of-jail-free card for a short while, but this is just the latest irritating Microsoft scheme to get everyone onto Windows 10. The way it's always been in the past is that enterprises could buy today's hardware, but put their current image on it, only upgrading when it made sense. But with this move, Microsoft changes everything...

Soon, when you buy a new PC, it won't support Windows 7 or 8. Microsoft has announced a change to its support policy that lays out its plans for future updates to its older operating systems, and the new rules mean that future PC owners with next-generation Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm processors will need to use Windows 10. It's not usual for old PCs to fall short of the minimum requirements of a brand new operating system, but in this case, the opposite is happening. Microsoft and its partners will not be putting in the significant work necessary to make...

200 million devices are now running Windows 10 all over the world, or almost two-thirds of the entire U.S. population. It's a bit surprising, given that much of this growth (about 40%) has occurred just since Thanksgiving. According to recent published data, Windows 10 is is on a trajectory of growth that beats Windows 7 (by 140%) and Windows 8 (by 400%). The question you might ask is: Why all of the raging success? And why now? [SNIP] My theory is more about speed. We notice when a computer is slow or fast, and we have almost zero patience for...

When we look at how many PCs across the globe run Windows 10, we see Microsoft's latest operating system having a relatively modest usage share of around 10 percent. That is even though it is offered as a free upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, both of which have remained more popular so far.However, things are quite different in US, where a new IDC survey claims that nearly 30 percent of PC users have embraced Windows 10. That figure may not accurately represent the entire PC user base in the country, due to the nature of the survey, but...

This is like the Night of the Living Dead Microsoft's relentless campaign to push Windows 10 onto every PC on the planet knows no bounds: now business desktops will be nagged to upgrade. When Redmond started quietly installing Windows 10 on computers via Windows Update, it was aimed at getting home users off Windows 7 and 8. If you were using Windows Pro or Enterprise, or managed your machines using a domain, you weren't supposed to be pestered with dialog boxes offering the free upgrade. Until now. According to Microsoft on Wednesday, the controversial try-hard "Get Windows 10" nagware is...

January 13 is the last day for business and individual users to move off older versions of the Internet Explorer web browser, before Microsoft pulls the plug on support including security patches. The deadline this week comes 18 months after Microsoft warned that it would cease to support Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10, giving users time to upgrade. Microsoft suggests users upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 and 8.1, or use the new Edge browser if they're on Windows 10. Edge is able to launch Internet Explorer 11 when needed, for backwards compatibility.

If you're using a PC running Windows 7 or 8, you may be getting a little sick of endless popup screens telling you to upgrade to version 10. And you may be worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update. Microsoft will start pushing out a Windows 10 upgrade as a recommended, virtually mandatory, update very soon (it's right now only an optional download). Some people are tempted to turn off Windows Update completely to avoid getting the new operating system – don't. It'll leave your computer vulnerable to attack as you'll no longer get security...

Official from the Redmond horse's mouth If you're using a PC running Windows 7 or 8 you may be getting a little sick of endless popup screens telling you to upgrade to version 10, and worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update. Microsoft will start pushing out the upgrade as a recommended, virtually mandatory, update very soon (it's right now only an optional download). Some people are tempted to turn off Windows Update completely to avoid getting the new operating system - don't. It'll leave your computer vulnerable to attack as you'll no longer get...

Windows 10 has been installed on over 200 million devices since its launch, making it the fastest growing version of the operating system, according to Microsoft. This adoption rate has outpaced Windows 7 by almost 140 percent and Windows 8 by 400 percent, wrote Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Windows and devices. Black Friday also helped significantly in boosting the user numbers for Windows 10. Demand has been high for the enterprise and education versions too, added Mehdi. The high number of active Windows 10 devices is something Microsoft will be pleased with but the new OS still remains...

Subtitle: But third-party metrics don't support the company's contention that Windows 10's adoption has outpaced Windows 7's in late 2009-early 2010 Microsoft today updated its Windows 10 claim, saying that the new operating system is on more than 200 million devices that have been used at least once in the past month. The number included not only personal computers and tablets, a company spokesman confirmed, but also Xbox One video game consoles -- the box got Windows 10 in November -- and smartphones now running a preview of Windows 10 Mobile. "As of today, there are more than 200 million...

A new type of ransomware has been spotted, the first of its kind, a ransomware that uses JavaScript to infect its users, being coded on top of the NW.js platform. NW.js, formerly known as Node-WebKit, is a powerful platform that allows developers to create desktop applications via Node.js modules. The platform lets programmers use JavaScript in the same way, and with the same power and reach inside the underlying operating system's guts, as other more powerful languages like C++, Delphi, Java, ActionScript, and C#. If the name hasn't tipped you off yet, NW.js uses a stripped down version of WebKit,...