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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...

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...

Windows 7 runs on 55% of all the computers on the planet, but according to news this week that is actually a bad and potentially dangerous thing. Says who? Actually Microsoft. . . Speaking to Windows Weekly, Microsoft Marketing chief Chris Capossela explained that users who choose Windows 7 do so "at your own risk, at your own peril" and he revealed Microsoft has concerns about its future software and hardware compatibility, security and more. "We do worry when people are running an operating system that's 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn't going to work well,...

Ok got something weird happening, and I'm at a loss what it could be- been researching for days now- thought I had the answer, but today the problem came back again I use windows 7 Hybrid Sleep, instead of shutting down- and for years it's worked fine- no issues- As of recently, I'll put the computer into sleep mode, everything does what it's supposed to- computer powers down- tower power button light goes to yellow like it's supposed to and the light on the front of the tower goes out (The HP symbol lights up when tower is working- then...

Good morning! I thought it odd that I hadn't received notice of updates on windows 7 so I went to the update panel and the only update was for windows 10. Then I noticed the little blue link "show all available updates" and went to the page where you select your updates. I selected all 34 that are there. Clicked okay, and when I got back to the update page up in the panel where you click start download is the same one and only aggravating windows 10 update I DO NOT WANT. I'm already having a bad morning and...

(Oh, and BTW... Windows 10 will be injected into your box by Redmond's mad doctors...) Microsoft will stop all sales of Windows 7 Pro to PC makers on Halloween 2016. Satya Nadella’s firm has quietly let slip that October 31, 2016, will be the final day for PC makers to buy copies of the operating system for pre-install. Microsoft updated its product support lifecycle page, here, in October with the change noticed on Friday. The firm stopped supplying Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate to PC makers on Saturday October 31. Before naming the 2016 date for Windows...

Although it initially tempted Windows 8.1 users, Windows 10 has increasingly grown its usage share at the expense of the much more widely used Windows 7, an encouraging sign for Microsoft's efforts to convince the old guard to switch. Using data from Irish analytics company StatCounter, Computerworld calculated the changes in usage share -- a measurement of desktop-and-laptop-driven online activity -- of the various editions of Windows since 10's debut on July 29. For the first four weeks after Windows 10's release, Windows 8.1 led in losses, beating Windows 7 by a wide margin. During that month-long span, Windows 8.1...

Conspiracy theories are gaining steam as accusations about Microsoft "spy patches" heat up. But a much larger part of the story may sound familiar to any experienced Windows or Office user. The tinfoil ball started rolling on Aug. 24, when Sergey Tkachenko at Winaero.com published an incendiary discovery: Four recent Windows 7 and 8.1 patches -- KB 3022345, 3068708, 3075249, and 3080149 -- were sending a potful of data to Microsoft's servers. In at least one case, the spying patches transmit data through hard-coded servers, bypassing the Hosts file and making it even harder to block their activity. On Aug....

Just when we thought that all the hoopla surrounding privacy in Windows 10 and questionable disclosure practices was starting to die down, Microsoft has to go and stir the pot once again with another seemingly overzealous move. It’s not enough that Windows 10 is installed on over 75 million PCs and counting; Microsoft is aiming for one billion installs within the next two to three years. And to get to that one billion figure, Microsoft wants to entice customers to upgrade their Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines to Windows 10. Making the upgrade free during the first year...

People all over the world are waking up this morning to a little present in their Windows 7 (and Server 2008 R2) Windows Update boxes: KB 3083324, which describes itself as “Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: September 2015.” Here’s what the KB article says: This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. That’s it. If there’s any further description, I can’t find it. In particular, as of this writing anyway, it isn’t even listed in the...

Microsoft's Windows 10 has easily surpassed the global usage share ascension of Windows 7 six years ago, putting it on track to become the company's most successful OS introduction ever. Windows 10's usage share neared 6.6 percent on Sunday, data from analytics vendor StatCounter showed. That was a 23 percent increase over what the OS logged the Sunday prior, continuing the unbroken stretch of double-digit-or-more, week-over-week increases since Windows 10's July 29 debut. The operating system's usage share increase has comfortably exceeded that of its closest rival, Windows 7, during the latter's first 18 days of availability in the fall...

If you are currently a Microsoft user running either Windows 7 or 8, you are eligible for a free upgrade to the "new and improved" Windows 10. But before you upgrade, be aware that it's free as in price, not as in liberty. Many of the new features and settings of Windows 10 have been deemed spyware by computer security experts. It's one thing to have programs and applications spying on you. It's another thing altogether to have your operating system designed to do it. When Microsoft announced the "free" upgrade, many were left wondering why the Redmond giant would...

About the Diagnostics Tracking service Helping the overall application experience The diagnostics tracking service collects diagnostics about functional issues on Windows systems that participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). CEIP reports do not contain contact information, such as your name, address, or telephone number. This means CEIP will not ask you to participate in surveys or to read junk email, and you will not be contacted in any other way. For any released product with an option to participate in CEIP, you can select to start or stop participating at any time. Most programs make CEIP options available...

On the verge of Windows 10's release, its predecessor has quietly moved into the #2 spot for market share among operating systems. Windows 8.1 has now overtaken Windows XP, the one time king of all operating systems, but it's something of a hollow victory as Windows 7 still leads by a wide margin. According to Netmarketshare, as of June 2015, Windows 8.1's usage has increased to 13.12% among all operating systems, while XP sits at 11.98% and Windows 7 still accounts for a dominant 60.98% share. These three OS' also represent the only three with double digit market share. The...

Windows 10 is almost here and since Windows 7 and 8.1 users will be allowed to upgrade to the new OS without paying a single cent, usage of these two versions increases on a daily basis. Statistics provided by Net Applications show that Window 7 has reached a market share of 60.98 percent in June 2015, obviously remaining the number one desktop operating system in the whole world. Windows 8.1 is second in this list with 13.12 percent, while Windows XP is still being used by 13.12 percent of the PC owners across the world. Windows 8 has dropped even...

"DISK BOOT FAILURE - Insert system disk and press enter" Doing just that produces no result. I've tried booting with the system disk I used to install W7 on this machine, and with two repair disks created on other 32 bit W7 machines, and get the "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible" message with them all. I have a Windows PE install on a flash drive which will boot and let me in to look at the drives. I've been able to copy all the files from the boot partition to another USB drive, and run chkdsk...

THIS MONTH'S OPERATING SYSTEM statistics from Net Applications show that the spectre of Windows 7 is simply refusing to shift for Microsoft. The wildly popular operating system shows no signs of slowing down its dominance with a 58.04 percent market share (+2.05). A full two-point jump is quite an event in these parts at the best of times, but it's just embarrassing for an OS that has already been superseded. Users are likely to be hanging on for Windows 10 now. The preview build of the upcoming platform is holding steady with just under one percent of the market. Windows...

At Microsoft’s Windows 10 event today, the company shared that all Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users will be able to upgrade to Windows 10, for free. Microsoft said that the free upgrade will be valid for the first year immediately after the release. Those on Windows Phone 8.1 will also get the update. Terry Myerson, VP of Windows at Microsoft said that the company wanted to make it a “seamless upgrade” for those users when Windows 10 is released.

As Windows 10 approaches, Microsoft will no longer offer free help and support for the ageing but still popular Windows 7. Microsoft is keen to move users onto Windows 8 instead -- to find out more, check out our how-tos, troubleshooting, news and reviews of Windows 8. Alternatively, you can wait for Windows 10 later this year. Windows 7 was released in 2009. It sold over 100 million copies in six months and remains hugely popular. More stable than predecessor Windows Vista and more familiar than its radically redesigned successor Windows 8, version 7 is still estimated to be running...

Microsoft's head of Windows Insider program, Gabriel Aul, has confirmed that Windows 10 will require a fresh install on Windows devices older than Windows 7.Revealed in a reply from his Twitter account, Aul wrote that there won't be any full upgrade paths as these will be solely available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users.It makes sense given that some of them might be on older filesystems (e.g. FAT32). That's also assuming that Windows 10 will run on these systems, which although they may have enough resources (RAM/CPU) to power Microsoft's newest OS, may well run into compatibility issues with...