Windows 8

8 things Microsoft is doing wrong

A few days ago, Tami Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing and financial officer for Windows, announced that the company had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since October 26 -- the day the new operating system launched. All puns aside, on the surface that seems pretty impressive, but recent articles by CNET and others indicate a much shakier start for Windows 8 and the hardware hinged to it.

On November 29, an article by the New York Times cited poor sales figures for both Windows PCs and tablets from NPD, the retail sales tracking firm, painting "a darker picture … Read more

How to enable metered Wi-Fi connections in Windows 8

One of the new features of Windows 8 is metered wireless connections. In the past, you could run Windows programs to monitor your data usage, but they didn't do anything to actually reduce data usage. With mobile hot spot and broadband card usage on the rise and unlimited data plans nearing extinction, every kilobyte of bandwidth saved is a penny earned. Enabling metering in Windows 8 will limit your PC or tablet's data usage by preventing nonessential data transfers.

According to Microsoft's FAQ on metered connections, the effects of enabling a metered connection are:

Windows Update will … Read more

Windows 8 slower out of gate than Windows 7, says report

Windows 8 is playing second fiddle to Windows 7, at least in Internet traffic, according to data out today from StatCounter.

Over the four-week period ending November 26, Windows 8 had grabbed a worldwide Internet usage share of just 1.31 percent, the Web traffic firm said.

In comparison, Windows 7 had achieved a global Internet usage share of 4.93 percent during the one month after its debut in October 2009.

Both operating systems officially launched in October during their respective years. However, both were also available as freely downloadable release candidates prior to their official debuts.

StatCounter's … Read more

Microsoft Surface Pro to get half the battery life of Surface RT

How much does battery life matter to tablet users? Microsoft may soon find out, first hand.

Microsoft went public today with pricing for its Surface Pro PC/tablet devices -- the Intel-based ones running Windows 8 Pro that will allow users to run their existing third-party apps on the desktop. The 64GB version will be $899; the 128GB version, $999. (Both prices include a pen, but no touch or type keyboard/cover. So add another $120 to $130 for that.)

Pricing is not all the team shared about the Microsoft-branded Surface Pros, due out in January 2013.

Surface Pros are … Read more

Windows 8 launches... and PC sales drop 21 percent. Hmm

Windows 8 isn't exactly lighting a fire under PC sales, according to NPD.

U.S. sales of Windows devices during the initial four-week launch of Windows 8 dropped 21 percent compared with the same period a year ago, the research firm said today.

Notebook sales, which have been on the decline all year, sunk by 24 percent. And desktop sales, which staged a bit of a rebound this year, declined by 9 percent.

"After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,&… Read more

Windows 8 off to an awkward start, Nomura says

The Windows 8 debut is off to an "awkward" start, Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund says, and that doesn't bode well for Microsoft's financial results.

Microsoft last month launched the newest version of its operating system, which incorporates more tablet-like features such as touch capabilities. The company is making a big bet with the new OS, counting on the software to help fend off competition from the iPad and other mobile devices. But there have been worries that Windows 8 demand is sluggish, with consumers instead opting for tablets.

Sherlund noted that PC vendors have been slow … Read more

Microsoft says it's sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far

Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since October 26.

Tami Reller, chief marketing and financial officer for Windows, announced the tally today during her appearance at the Credit Suisse Annual Tech Conference.

Microsoft had not released any sales figures for Windows 8 other than saying the company sold 4 million upgrade licenses of the operating system to those with previous versions of Windows during the first three days it was available. Microsoft launched Windows 8 commercially on October 26.

How does this compare to Windows 7 sales? Microsoft said it had sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses from … Read more

Windows 8 moves to BIOS-based product keys

Windows 8 PCs now embed their product keys in the BIOS, a move that offers both pros and cons.

In the past, a new Windows PC would display its product key on a sticker, usually on the side of a desktop and on the base or the bottom of the battery compartment on a laptop. But with Windows 8, Microsoft has switched gears and now stores and encrypts the key in the BIOS instead.

A response to a question on Microsoft's Answers Web site confirmed the details earlier this month:

One of the improvements Microsoft is making to Activation … Read more

How to build a custom Windows 8 Start screen tile for your site

We recently showed you how to pin your favorite Web sites to the Windows 8 Start screen. By default, the tile may use the site's favicon.ico file or just display the generic Internet Explorer icon. If you operate a Web site, that may not be good enough for you. Here's how to give your site visitors a high quality tile to pin on their Windows 8 Start screens:

Step 1: Go to the Microsoft site, http://www.buildmypinnedsite.com, then under the "See your site in Windows 8" section, enter the URL of your Web … Read more