Author Archives: GEEK!

Windows 7 market share nearly doubles in a month, Vista and XP falls

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Windows 7 appears to be doing quite nicely at the moment. According the HitsLink, the Windows 7 market share nearly doubled in November. It went from 2.15% in October to 4.00% in November.

In addition, Vista and XP are beginning to loose their market share. Vista’s market share has fallen from 18.83% in October to 18.55% in November and XP’s has fallen from 70.48% in October to 69.05% in November.

This definitely shows that Windows 7 is pulling people over from older versions.

I have to say I think this is a bit of a fluke. Microsoft’s advertising campaign in the UK has been pretty awful – this “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea” junk.

Oh well, I suppose I should be glad that people are finally moving away from XP – but there’s clearly a long way to go…

Office 2010 confirmed for June next year…

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Microsoft today confirmed to Ars Technica that Office 2010 is expected to be in general availability by June 2010, after a beta tester apparently reported similar information.

The good news to that is that we should hopefully have 6 months of beta testing! Awesome.

However, don’t get too excited. OK, Windows 7 did actually launch on time, but Vista and Office 2007 were severely delayed. Microsoft aren’t brilliant at meeting deadlines, lets face it!

Oh well. GEEK! will keep you posted if any other news crops up, but for now lets hope that Office 2010 is worth it. Personally, I am yet to see anything that makes Office 2010 worth upgrading from 2007 (or 2003 for that matter). It still uses the annoying DOCX format unless you specifically tell it not to use it – but that removes some features from Word.

If you haven’t got your hands on the Office 2010 beta, you can grab a copy here.

Guide: Get the old Start bar back in Windows 7

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I have mixed feelings about the Windows 7 Start bar – sometimes it is really helpful and sometimes it’s a pain in the backside.

Anyway, if you don’t like the new chunky Start bar without the program text, here’s how to change it back to the traditional Windows Start bar.

  • Right click on the Start bar and click Properties.
  • On the Start Bar tab, tick the “Use small icons” tickbox.
  • Then, on the Taskbar Buttons dropdown menu, select “Never combine”.
  • Click OK, and the Vista style Start bar will return in all it’s glory, whilst keeping the new Windows 7 features.

In case you’re unsure, take a look at the screenshot below which shows what the Properties box should look like…

Taskbar and Start Menu Properties

There you go!

We could be at the end of the free public wi-fi era… already

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I was reading on the news site ISPReview today that we could well be at the end of our free wi-fi era already. The reason is that the government’s Digital Economy Bill would appear to suggest that wi-fi holders are to be held fully responsible for any data transferred across their internet connection.

Basically, this means that if you are in a pub using free wi-fi and you download an illegal MP3 from a site you are putting that pub owner at full responsibility for that download and is at risk for a hefty fine for allowing illegal downloads.

It was in the news that a pub owner has been fined £8,000 for an unknown customer downloading illegal files.

So this could signify the end of free wi-fi. Companies can’t afford to give out free internet if they risk being fined for something they didn’t do.

It’s a shame really, but I think it’s silly that business owners are put in responsibility for crimes they haven’t committed.

Guide: Using System Configuration to speed up your computer

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Just so you know, I did originally put this up in the GEEK! Guides section on GEEK!, but I decided since I’m discontinuing that section I’ve decided I’d better republish the guides. For this guide, I’ve updated it a little and republished it here.

It happens to all of us – you’ve had your computer quite a while now and all that software you installed is beginning to take its toll. Slow start-ups, tonnes of programs nagging you on the taskbar – it happens to all of us eventually. It’s quite simple to fix, and it doesn’t always mean that you have to remove programs. Basically, you just need to use System Configuration to disable some of the programs you don’t need from running at start-up. It reduces the load on your RAM and processor meaning that startups are quicker and you aren’t bombarded with programs on the start bar.

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