Tag Archives: Microsoft Windows

Kyle's Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

8 Pros and Cons for Windows 8

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Kyle’s Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

I recently downloaded Windows 8. Below, I have listed 8 pros, and 8 cons from my experience thus far with Windows 8.

Your experience with Windows 8 will be different of course. I hope that you don’t have as many installation problems as I did.

8 Pros for 8

  1. New! New! I love new things…
  2. It is at a great price of $39.99, compared to previous versions of Windows (Windows 7 costed over $100).
  3. Pro/Con: Your Microsoft Account is merged with Windows (for myself, this is a con).
  4. Speed… I’m finding Windows 8 to be much faster!
  5. Microsoft Office 2013 (Get the Preview for free) is awesome!
  6. The Start Screen just looks cool, maybe it’s a fad… maybe not.
  7. The boot is incredibly fast, clocking in at 5 seconds.
  8. The apps are great for the most part, all enjoying the new ‘metro’ design language.

The amazing Netflix app for Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

8 Cons for 8

  1. I had so many installation problems with Windows 8. I spent hours on Twitter with their support account, and hours more on their phone support. In the end it worked.
  2. This is a massive file. 2GB. If you have a slow internet connection, DO NOT buy the digital download.
  3. Once Microsoft Office 2013 is available, it will cost $99/year. I am not looking forward to that.
  4. The Charms features are difficult to figure out at first.
  5. Is it just me, or are some pre-installed apps taking a really long time to load? Windows Store, for example.
  6. Setting everything up again. Trying to remember all of your passwords (You are using different passwords, right?) is not fun.
  7. Apps are far and few between. The ones that exist are great, but it is a limited selection.
  8. Internet Explorer is still the default browser and is still horrible.

 

What do you think of Windows 8? Leave your review in the comments.

Kyle Stewart will be publishing his final review before next Tuesday, on Magnae Famae.

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Image via The Verge

Windows 8 packaging revealed

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Image via The Verge

On October 26th, if you decide to pick up a copy of Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro… here is the packaging you’ll see.

The Verge posted a photo of the packaging of the upcoming operating system. These boxed versions will be available in retail stores only.

What do you think of the packaging?

windows-8-metro

New Details on Windows 8 leaked

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Image via OSXDaily)

A piece of code was found in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that would allow a Metro Kill Switch to be in place. Also many more things were found in the code, but will not be put in place until Windows 8 is on-the-market.

The switch, would simply turn off the Metro style Windows 8 . This would make it so that only the Desktop version of Windows 8 appears. The kill switch will be located in the Control Panel under the soon-to-come What to do with Windows 8 Metro section.

The kill switch will look like a Light Switch, which will be like sliding things on and off in iOS. Other things in the Control Panel that will have ‘light switch looking things’ include:

  • A make Steve Ballmer’s face my desktop background switch
  • A Angry Birds version of  Windows 8 switch
  • A Return to Windows 2000 switch

Also, Microsoft will be including a Get out of Windows Free switch, which will instantly put Linux on your system, causing you to lose every piece of your data including valuable Pictures, irreplaceable family videos, and even the essay you’ve been working on for the past month!

Microsoft has plans to fill the Stable release of Windows 8 with endless Freeware! The list includes…

  • Al’s Virus Removal, now includes 24/7 webcam watching for burglars, free of charge!
  • Insta911, You can now instantly call 911 by simply clicking on the new 911 button, which will replace the space bar!
  • Auto-Back-Correct, This program will start yelling at you the second that your back starts slouching while typing. New features include a Texas-Person yelling a you, a British person yelling at you, A Spanish person yelling at you, and a Customer Support Rep from Microsoft yelling at you!
  • iPod Cancellation with Zune, now whenever you plug-in your iPod, instead of iTunes opening, A hundred Pop-up adds for Microsoft Zune will open. The final pop-up will tell you that your iPod has a virus, because while you were closing the pop-ups, a virus was put into your iPod telling you where you can buy a Microsoft Zune.
  • Google.com-does-not-exist, Now whenever you go to Google in any Web Browser, you will receive a Notification that Google doesn’t exist. You can use Microsoft Bing instead!
  • and many, many more pieces of Software that are sure to make your Circuits crash!

What do you think of all of the freeware and switches? Leave a comment below.

Which Anti-Virus should Windows users use?

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There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of free Anti-Viruses out there for Windows.

Anti-Viruses are an essential piece of software that very Internet user needs, unless they want a virus which will damage and possibly kill (for lack of a better word) your computer. Even if you only go online once a month or so, just going online makes a possibility to get a virus.

So, here is the question that Windows users everywhere are scratching their heads about… What free Anti-Virus should I get?

I am going to line up the best  free Windows Anti-Virus software in this article.

Microsoft Security Essentials

1 Microsoft Security Essentials. What better than a Anti-Virus from the company that knows your OS best. This piece of great software is available for Windows XP, Vista and 7. This allows you to schedule when you want scans to start automatically to check for viruses, spyware etc. so that you don’t even need to think about it. DOWNLOAD IT! (64-bit version) (Your FAQ tested and approved) Download the 32-bit version!

 

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

2 Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. This Anti-Virus has both a paid and free version. The free version gets malware just as the paid version does, however it does not allow scheduled scans, which is an inconvenience, but it does work very well. It does NOT support Real-time protection. I run this program on computers that have a virus. I put it on a Flash drive and run the program on that bad computer. It works on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7. DOWNLOAD IT! (Your FAQ tested and approved)

 

AVG Anti-Virus 2012

3 AVG Anti-Virus. AVG (Anti-Virus Grand) is an okay piece of software. It is far from the best. I uninstalled AVG because it was annoying me with notifications about other downloads and also bad for using too much CPU. I would only download it if I really needed it. It works for Windows XP, Vista and 7. DOWNLOAD IT! (Your FAQ tested and approved)

If your home goes on fire, and floods, you will lose all of your data with, or without an Anti-Virus program. I would recommend you to do off-site backup of your computer(s) to avoid this, should it happen. Some solutions include Carbonite, which backs up at their own servers (paid) and CrashPlan, which allows you to back up on your family and friends computers, and they can back up on your computer. No worries, your back-up is encrypted. (free).

Also, it is common belief that a paid solution will work better than a free solution. All though that can be true, it is not for the most popular Anti-Viruses, which don’t work very well at all. (I am talking about Norton and McAfee.) The free Microsoft Security Essentials works much better then both of them.

What Anti-Virus do you use? Do you not use an Anti-Virus? Leave a comment below.

 

Image via CNET

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Released

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Windows 8's Metro U.I.(Image via CNET)

Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft debuted Windows 8 in Consumer Preview. It is now available for download here for free from Microsoft.

Windows 8 now looks like it would actually be able to sell, with crucial new apps. Also the official launch of the Windows Store for Windows 8, is available in Windows 8.

As you may know Windows 8 really focuses on the Metro User Interface (U.I.). This is because it is mainly marketed towards Mobile devices like tablets in particular.

Windows 8 will be very dependent on your hardware, unlike previous version of  Windows, where it didn’t matter as much.

I am downloading Windows 8 Consumer Preview now, I have been downloading it for the past 7 hours… I have very slow High-Speed Internet. I call it Med-Speed.

If you are to download Windows 8, but you want to still keep Windows 7, you will want to download the .ISO file instead of the .EXE file I linked above. We will go through steps for running Windows 8 on a virtual machine in the near future at Your FAQ.

 

Image via LG

Best of CES 2012

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Image via LG

As always, CNET has come out with the best of CES 2012. CES 2012 has some amazing products, but below are the best, according to CNET.

  • BEST OF SHOW: LG 55-inch OLED TV. This TV was stunning. Only 4mm (millimeters thick)… that’s thinner then a pencil. You could barely see the screen when you looked at it on the side. What’s better? LG says by 2016 a OLED TV like this one will cost about the same as a LCD TV today. WOW. We strongly agree with CNET’s choice on this product.
  • PEOPLE’S VOICE: Razor Project Fiona. This is an amazing Windows 8 Gaming tablet. It looks fantastic, although it is only a concept so far. It has Intel’s i7 processor,  a solid state drive, 10.1 inch screen, with a 1280 x 800 resolution. apparently it will have the battery life of a Laptop, not a Tablet. The tablet will also have an Android overlay.
  • SMARTPHONE: Nokia Lumia 900. The phone, running Windows Phone 7 impressed all with a 4.3 inch AMOLED screen, a front-facing camera, dual LED flash, 16GB memory, and is available in Black and Blue. This phone looks fantastic.
  • CAMERA: Fujifilm X-PRO 1: This new camera is the world’s first mirror less camera. The camera is estimated to be about $1700. The camera has 3 lenses (each about $650) a 18mm f2, a 35mm f1.4, and a 60mm f2.4 macro. The LCD screen has 1.4 million pixels. The camera can shoot video at 1080p.
  • EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: Makerbot Replicator. The Makerbot is a (amazing) 3D printer. This Makerbot Replicator can “make anything”. The Replicator starts at $1799.
  • COMPUTER: HP Envy 14 Spectre. This is HP’s first consumer-focused Ultrabook. The screen is 1600 x 900 pixels. It will have a 128 GB solid state drive, along with  likely a i(3,5 or 7) intel processor. The ultrabook is expected to cost about $1399.
  • TABLET: Asus Memo 370T. This 7 inch tablet from Asus made a splash at CES 2012. Especially with the price point of only $250. It has 1GB RAM, and at least 16GB storage. It will have a Micro-USB port and a micro SD and HDMI reader as well.
  • SOFTWARE: Bluestacks for Windows 8. This app lets you run Android apps in Windows 8. With so many Android apps available this will be extremely convenient to consumers. So much so, it will be included in Windows 8.

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What a great list of software! Great picks, CNET! What do you think of the picks? Which products would you be willing to buy? Leave a comment below or email us at question@magnaefamae.com.

 

Not-So-FAQ: What to do when Keyboard and mouse don’t work

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You know what sucks? When your keyboard AND mouse don’t work. To fix this, you will need to hope that you have a restore state you can put windows in. Now, if you do, but it’s old. It’s OK the only stuff you will lose is any software you installed since that time you created a restore point for your computer. You will keep all of your documents. If you are reading this now, and everything is working fine… you may want to create a restore point. So we will cover two things in this how-to.

  1. How to create a  Restore Point.
  2. How to Restore your computer.
Now, for this situation when your mouse and keyboard don’t work you will need you restore your computer.
HOW TO CREATE A RESTORE POINT
  1. Go to the start menu and right click Computer.
  2. Click on Properties.
  3. On the left click on System Protection.
  4. Click on the Create Button.
HOW TO RESTORE YOUR COMPUTER
  1. System Restore 091306 001

    Image by Matt Brett via Flickr

    Start your computer, quickly press f8, or whatever the computer screen says to get into computer options, do this before the windows logo appears.

  2. Go to the Advanced Boot Options Screen.
  3. Use the arrow keys to get to Repair your computer.
  4. Click on the the System Restore button, and the rest is self-explanatory.
The keyboard and mouse should work in this mode, because it is highly likely that this is a problem with windows, not the computer.