Pensacola Computer Help Technoblog

Microsoft’s Windows 8 has already been released to manufacturers and developers and is scheduled to be released to the general public and for sale on new computers as of October 26th. Windows 8 brings a wealth of new features and better security to the PC as well as tablets. Optimized for touch screens, Windows 8 is a pretty big departure from previous versions of Windows and make take some getting used to. We have been using Windows 8 throughout it’s development cycle and have been playing with the final release version now for over a week and it is impressive.

Starting with the new Start Screen (there is no more start button), Windows 8 brings us live tiles and apps that provide a live link to web content in a full screen app. We were really impressed with some of the start up apps such as Weather, which brings together a wealth of information in an easy to browse format. Also included in Windows 8 are 2 versions of Internet Explorer 10, a full screen one that runs from the app screen (but does not include support for plug-ins) and the normal desktop mode. We found that while the full screen app version does provide both excellent speed and rendering, the lack of plug-in support made us switch to the desktop version quite frequently – this will of course depend upon your own personal browsing habits, but we tend to use quite a few sites that require plug-ins on a regular basis.

Under the hood there have been quite a lot of changes to optimize the Windows experience, both from a performance and a security standpoint. Gone is the resource hogging Windows Aero (which provided the cool transparent windows borders, but also taxed the system), and Windows now sports many updated features including a new Windows Explorer and a much improved task manager. Windows also comes with much better default security and privacy features that offer a much higher level of protection than previously.

Coming in the following weeks will be providing a wealth of info on the new Windows 8 including some galleries and specific hardware review.

For any questions on the upcoming Windows 8, including information on Windows 8 installation and Windows 8 upgrades, please visit http://pensacolacomputers.com

Microsoft has finally taken the wraps off of the upcoming Windows 8 which is due out in 2012 and I must say there are some amazing innovations. Using a new HTML5 driven application development, Microsoft has shown that it is definitely willing and able to compete in the current and future market. Developing an operating system that can easily run on both standard desktops and laptops as well as tablets is something that only Microsoft would tackle, and looking at the preview of Windows 8, it looks like they are headed in the right direction.

With touch enabled and optimized home screen and new apps for the desktop, Windows 8 looks to put the pressure on Apple’s iOS in a number of ways (not that Apple will take this sitting down, but unless they do a radical re-write, iOS is way far behind in terms of being truly productive for power and business users). I really like the new snap feature that is presented – the ability to size apps across the screen with easy to use gestures. Using HTML5 and JavaScript for the new apps, Microsoft will bring in a whole new crop of savvy developers which is sure to provide some amazing apps. Considering that Windows can run on such a large variety of hardware, this will offer consumers a massive choice of how they want to recieve their information in the future as well as being able to choose the most productive hardware platform for creating.

Of course, all the old familiar Windows apps will still work which makes it even better – the ability to use the programs that people are used to, combined with the new cutting edge technology that enhances our ability to consume and produce information just about anywhere.

Following is a video from Microsoft which highlights some of the new features they are working on for Windows 8:

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YouTube Direkt

Pensacola Computers has been Microsoft Beta Testers since 2002 and was heavily involved in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 development – we are expecting to be fully involved in the testing for Windows 8 and will be able to help individuals and organizations with any questions in the upcoming months.

I was reading and interesting article about someone who already hates the new Windows 7 because they are a die-hard XP fan: If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7 . In the article, someone who has tested the new Windows 7 Beta tells about what they hate. Thankfully the author of the article goes on to point out why the things that are hated are in fact some of the greatest improvements in Windows. One of these being how the new Search feature works. This is one of the most misunderstood and often unused features in Windows Vista, and every time I show someone how it really works, they are amazed. A lot of Vista’s problems are due to a couple of factors, the main one being that when Vista was first released, there just weren’t enough hardware drivers for it, and as a result a lot of older hardware just wouldn’t work – and this pissed people off. Of course, this led to Vista getting slammed in the press, and what followed was a huge number of people hating Vista without ever really trying it.

Hopefully Windows 7 will not suffer the same fate. While I personally love Vista and have been using it well before it was officially released, I am looking forward to some of the new and improved features in Windows 7. The nice thing about Windows 7 is that it should easily run on hardware that is running Vista now, and in fact it may very well run on some older hardware that doens’t run Vista very well.

While XP was ok when it first came out (although if you were there, you will remember how people screamed that their Windows 98 hardware and software had so many problems trying to run on XP), XP is old, it was never designed for the applications and rich media internet that we experience today. Nor was it designed to deal with the numerous security threats that are out there today. While Microsoft is still issuing security patches for it, it just isn’t as secure as it needs to be, especially if you do anything on the internet. There is also the fact that as time goes on, there will be less and less manufacturers that will release XP drivers for new hardware, as well as less new software that will be supported on it.

I am currently one of the limited number of official Beta Testers for Windows 7, and as the testing progresses I will be writing up some of my opinions (limited somewhat by my Beta Tester agreement with Microsoft). What I can tell you now is that Windows 7 looks to be a great operating system, and for those who have held off moving to Vista from XP, when it is released I will probably highly recommend it to all those people who haven’t upgraded yet.

Microsoft recently released a pre-beta version of the next version of Windows (named Windows 7) to a select group of developers, and I must say that so far it is looking pretty good, especially considering it’s pre-beta state. While Vista has certainly had its share of people who ‘say’ they don’t like it (mostly because of trying to run old software or hardware etc), Windows 7 aims to take some of the annoyances from Vista and make it more user friendly.

Starting with a less intrusive version of user access controls (those annoying pop-ups in Vista, that actually help protect your computer), and moving to better file management, an improved back-up program, and a host of other interface improvements, Windows 7 is looking like it will be the Vista that Microsoft hoped for originally.

Although a final release date has not been set, we can probably expect to see Windows 7 hit the market sometime late next year – stay tuned for more information as we dig into the new Windows 7