Tag Archives: microsoft

Windows 7 will offer downgrade to Windows Vista and XP

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Microsoft has confirmed to news site The Register that Windows 7 will offer a downgrade to Windows Vista and Windows XP for up to 6 months after general availability. The news page seems to suggest that the downgrade will be available for Windows 7 Pro and Windows 7 Ultimate.

I would guess that the downgrade availability would be becuase there are still a large group of people who prefer Windows XP to Windows 7 and Vista.

So, if you still love Windows XP, you don’t need to worry about buying a new computer. Personally, I think Windows 7 will be much better than any previous Windows version, so see what you think before you downgrade.

Windows 7 Release Candidate now set for May according to Microsoft

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There is news spreading on the internet that a div at Microsoft has published (supposedly by mistake) on the Microsoft site that the Windows 7 release candidate was due in May 2009, which has blown some people’s ideas that the RC would be available in April.

Are we to suspect that Microsoft is falling behind schedule? It’s not like Microsoft has fallen behind before – remember what happened for Windows Vista. Remember how late that was?

We’ll have to see what happens to the release candidate. It begs the question will the final release be delayed. Microsoft has been constantly reminding us that they want Windows 7 out by January ’10 at the very latest, but we all know what they are like.

Oh and by the way, I would like to apologise for the slight lack of posts lately – I’ve been doing websites for a few people and GEEK! fell a little behind. Don’t worry, the websites are now finished and I can concentrate on GEEK! again 🙂

I’ve got a really nice budget ADSL2+ router coming in for review in the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Internet Explorer 8 Final Version Released

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Microsoft has finally launched the final version of the new Internet Explorer 8. It’s available for download now – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx.

Personally I doubt it will be anything good to look forward to. Microsoft are making some claims that it is faster and easier to use than Google Chrome, but I really doubt it’s true. There’s nothing faster than Chrome (especially in start time) in my opinion.

In any matter, I’ll go and download it as it’ll probably be forced onto my computer with Windows Update in a few weeks time. Might as well get it over and done with :-).

Microsoft pulls in more features to Windows 7

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Microsoft has today mentioned on their MSDN blog a long list of new features (27 to be precise) that will be added into the Release Candidate of Windows 7 when it arrives.

To see what they’ve come up with, click here.

From a quick skim through, I can see they have made a few improvements to the Control Panel –  I like the ‘recently used’ idea as I regularly use the display options when I use different monitors. Also, they’ve added multi-touch zoom support for Windows Explorer which will be great if you have a touchscreen monitor. And apparently, according to the blog, turning off the logoff and shutdown sounds can speed up shutdowns by up to 400ms. In Microsoft’s words, “Every little bit counts”.

In addition, the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ feature that has been in many older versions of Windows has now been renamed to simply ‘Eject’ and Microsoft have also said they have added support for some firewire cameras which wouldn’t work in Windows 7 Beta.

They have also managed to shrink the page file in Windows 7 RC which means you’ll have a little bit of extra hard drive space to play with. And of course, Microsoft finished by saying they have enhanced the driver support in Windows 7 a little further.

All things to look forward to. You’ll be updated here on GEEK! as soon as any more news arrises.

Windows Live Onecare – fantastic if it was free.

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I’ve been using Windows Live Onecare for a short while now. A friend recommended it to me, so I took the 90 day trial and that has just recently expired.

So what did I think? Well, I love it. It does my backups, antivirus, firewall, and all my other security for me all in one piece of it. It runs smoothly and quietly on my computer, doesn’t use much resources, and in general is very accurate on what is good and what is bad.

There’s one catch – it’s not free. It will cost you around £30-40 for a one-year license which will cover up to 3 computers in your home. That includes all updates and once you’ve paid up you can leave it alone. Now most people would say, “well thirty quid aint bad for a piece of kit that’ll cover my computers for a year” and I’d agree, but there is software out there that will do the same for free.

However, Microsoft (who owns and runs Onecare) did announce late last year that they were going to discontinue Onecare and replace it with a newer, better, free piece of kit that will do the same job. This I’m looking forward to. I’d love to use Onecare, but I just don’t feel the money is worth it when there’s software out there will do the same job for free. So if Microsoft can launch a good free piece of kit, I will definately be happy to use it.

But for now, I’m going to revert to good old Comodo Internet Security. I love Comodo software. It’s free, easy to use, and a “set and forget” firewall. It does my firewall, antivirus and anything else security related – like Onecare, but free. Updates are free, it doesn’t spam me with ads and adware, and I can just leave it to do its job. Perfect.