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On Tuesday, Microsoft credited strong sales of Windows 7, as well as the introduction of Office 2010, for pushing its second quarter revenues to a record $16 billion -- a 22% jump over the same quarter in 2009. Windows revenue grew by more than $1 billion, to $4.55 billion, according to the company. As it has several times in the past, yesterday Microsoft called Windows 7 "the fastest-selling operating system ever." The OS has certainly outperformed its predecessor, Windows Vista. According to data from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications, which tracks operating system usage share by monitoring 40,000 sites that...

Tomorrow is D-day for Windows XP SP2 users. Granted, Windows XP SP2 will still work, but tomorrow is the last Patch Tuesday for the venerable OS which means it will become more unstable and less secure as time goes on. Simply applying SP3 will suffice to continue running a supported platform, but here are five reasons to consider switching off of Windows XP entirely. 1. Hardware Support. Windows XP is archaic, and it is designed to run on outdated hardware. As new technologies are introduced, it is unlikely that Windows XP will be compatible or able to take advantage of...

My old computer died the other day and I'm picking up a new one tomorrow. I always load the OS myself and for the last few times I've stayed with XP Pro SP3 because it's stable and reliable for what I use the pc for. I've heard decent things about Windows 7 but for now I'm thinking of staying with XP. If you had the chance to reload your pc today would you stick with XP or move to Win 7, and why? No flavors of Unix are an option, I'm sure it's a great OS but I want Windows...

A high-ranking executive of Microsoft Corp. said that while there are makers, who decided to use Google Android operating system on their tablets, which are to be unveiled during Computex Taipei 2010 trade-show, in the long-term Windows operating system will still be more popular on desktops, notebooks and slates. “There are always lots of noises at the beginning of new category. When netbooks were introduced three years ago, it was 95% not on Windows, and three years later it is 95% on Windows,” Steve Guggenheimer, a corporate vice president who oversees Microsoft's relationships with PC makers and other hardware companies,...

TAIPEI—Asustek Computer Inc., the Taiwan company that pioneered the netbook, joined the battle to take on Apple Inc.'s iPad, unveiling a tablet computer that will run on Microsoft Corp. software. Speaking ahead of Tuesday's official start of the Computex trade show here, Asustek executives said their new device, called the Eee Pad, will start selling in the first quarter of next year. The touch-screen tablet personal computer will use Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system and Intel Corp.'s Core processor. In a potentially risky move that underscores the importance of software in the burgeoning tablet market, Asustek will also launch an...

IDG News Service - Shipments of laptops rose by 43.4% in the first three months of 2010, compared to the same period last year, according to Gartner Inc. The researcher cited a 71% increase in netbook sales, which it said shouldn't be affected by the arrival of Apple's iPad and other tablets. The year-over-year growth was the highest the laptop market has seen in the last eight years, Gartner said, and buyers spent about $36 billion. A total of 49.4 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2010. About 20% of those were netbooks, which made up...

Windows 7 has fueled a surge of goodwill toward Microsoft, with the company's customer satisfaction ratings reaching a record high in Q1, according to a new American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. Microsoft's reputation among customers plunged after it released the widely criticized Windows Vista, but Windows 7 helped Microsoft achieve an increase of nearly 9% in its customer satisfaction score between 2009 and 2010. When Vista was released in 2007, "customer satisfaction plunged 4% to an ACSI score of 70, well below the industry average, where it remained for the next three years," University of Michigan business professor Claes Fornell...

Apologize for the vanity, but the Microsoft Store phone help center is closed. I want to purchase a Windows 7 upgrade for my mother and help her install it (via phone) today. Has anyone installed the upgrade? My main question is that while purchasing, if I enter HER e-mail into the e-mail box, will that be her trigger to download the upgrade? In other words, will she get a link in HER inbox that will lead her to the download? Or does the purchase have to happen on HER laptop in PA, not my desktop in FL? Any help is...

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder. By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

Charlie A. Miller loves his Macbook Pro laptop. And his four other Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) PCs, the iPhone he uses daily and two older iPhones he keeps for tinkering. But his relationship with the company that created those gadgets is somewhat more complicated. In March, for instance, the 36-year-old security researcher publicized his discovery of 20 security vulnerabilities in Apple's software. Each would allow a cybercriminal to take over the computer of a user who's tricked into opening a certain PDF attachment or who simply visits an infected Web page using Apple's Safari browser. That...

The reports that Microsoft will soon deliver the first service packs of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 seem likely to be true, judging by a recently leaked version of Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Service packs provide Microsoft with the opportunity to package together bug fixes and security fixes (which have typically been previously delivered piece-wise to consumers over Windows Update). They also provide a place for Microsoft to deliver new content. As Microsoft's retail releases come less frequently than those of its chief competitor Apple, Service Packs are crucial to Microsoft's OSs having a healthy lifecycle. The...

The IT world has been saying it for years, and now Microsoft itself is chiming in on the topic. Removing admin rights from users will eliminate 90% of the critical and remote execution flaws found in Windows 7, including most spyware threats. most Windows 7 flaws are found when normal users are operating as an admin or privileged user. By removing those extra permissions, and leaving just the administration account active, Windows 7 becomes an operating system nearly on par, security wise, with Mac OS X and Linux. It means that users in the work place will have to accept...

Most Windows 7 customers are satisfied with the new operating system, according to tech analyst house Forrester Research, but many stick-in-the-mud types still see no reason to upgrade from the OS that refuses to die - Windows XP. Forrester published the results of its study (subscription required) about take-up of Microsoft’s old and new operating systems this week. It found that 86 per cent of 4,559 US punters who took part in the survey were happy with Windows 7. However, the same research also reaffirmed that there’s still plenty of love out there for Microsoft’s aged Windows XP, with 43...

I am looking for some help. I have an older application that is not 64-bit. It will run on Win 7 32-bit and also in virtualization on Win 7 Pro & Win 7 Ultimate. The problem is Win 7 64-bit Home - the most popular version.

IE 6 browser is antique, but there are still companies continue to use the current IE 6 is still very common in the enterprise side, but even Microsoft’s long-term partner Intel is also still using relatively surprising.

Hello fellow DBA and other small business owners, I'm seeking advice about accounting software for small business operations. I've used Quickbooks for decades and I'm looking for a new application since my business has upgraded to Win-7, which is WOW btw. QB has become a tiresome and time consuming ordeal since the old school support has become a memory of the past. What app do you use and how long? Does it fare well with small DBA’? And any other input would be gratefully appreciated.

Greetings. Sometimes a seemingly small software update can usher in a whole new world. When Microsoft shortly pushes out a Windows 7 update with the reportedly innocuous title "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB971033)" -- it will be taking your Windows 7 system where it has never been before. And it may not be a place where you want to go. Imagine that you're sitting quietly in your living-room at your PC, perhaps watching YouTube. Suddenly, a pair of big, burly guys barge into your house and demand that you let them check your computer to make sure that it's "genuine"...

Seattle - The successful launch of new operating system Windows 7 propelled Microsoft to record revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009, the software giant reported Thursday. Microsoft reported net income of 6.7 billion, a 60 per cent increase on the year prior, while revenue rose 18 per cent to 19 billion dollars. 'This is a record quarter for Windows units,' Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, said in a news release. 'We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7.' The company said it sold more than 60 million Windows...

Just saw my first ad fior a sub $500 full fledged 15" screen notebook today....Just commenting, on the evolution in pricing. When Win 7 first came out, you couldn't find a notebook with it for under $700. I guess the OEMs have finally cleared out most of their back stock of Vista licenses, and PCs that can't handle Win 7. I'll expect we'll be seeing better deals on laptops with Win 7 coming out soon. If for no other reason than to compete better with iPad prices. Why buy crippleware when the full real deal costs the same or less?

I'm trying to copy MP3 folders from my Windows 7 music library to a removable USB drive. However, when I drag the folder from the right pane and try to drop it into the drive on the left pain, it only creates a link to the folder. When I right click on the folder, there is no copy command. Any suggestions?