Feed: Windows 8 Themes - AggScore: 67.9

Got A New PC? Windows 8 Upgrade Coming 2 June, $15 Each

According to new information, Microsoft will begin to offer the dollarsignr15 upgrade to Windows 8 from the 2nd of June this year.

Windows 8 Pro Upgrades For Everybody At dollarsignr15, With A dollarsignr20 Gift Card

More information has been gained on Windows 8 upgrade plans and it looks like Microsoft is all set to launch the upgrades from the 2nd of June, which is hardly a few days away. The dollarsignr15 upgrade plan that we have reported earlier is what will be offered to all those who make Windows 7 purchases between 2nd June and June 13 in 2013. And this upgrade offer will bring them up to Windows 8 Pro no matter what version of Windows 7 they are using. So doesn’t matter whether you have Windows 7 Home or Starter Edition, you will get upgraded to Windows 8 Pro. This is good news like no other for many customers out there.

The given time period also means you will be eligible for this upgrade if you do your shopping during the holiday rush and black Friday sales of 2012. So Microsoft is hoping to create a large pool of Windows 8 upgrades by the beginning of next year.

Microsoft has also taken a leaf out of Apple’s book and decided to offer workshops to customers who participate in the upgrade offer. This will acquaint them with the new OS and help them use it better and to more advantage. And it gets better — Microsoft is also going to offer a dollarsignr20 gift card to those who participate. This means your upgrade is now practically free. This gift card will be valid at Microsoft retail stores.

So it is clear that Microsoft will be providing users with a lot of incentives to go the Windows 8 way. This means more developer interest and that in turn means better apps and products for the users. Hopefully Microsoft will be successful in driving mass adoption of its brand new OS.

Microsoft Claims Windows Phone 8 Faster Than Most Phones

Microsoft publishes results of the “Smoked by Windows Phone” campaign and claims Windows Phone is faster than most other phones out there.

Windows Phone Comes Out On Top 98% Of The Times: Microsoft

Windows Phone is being heavily marketed by both Nokia and Microsoft and one of the recent efforts have been the ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ competition. It was run at tech events such as the CES 2012 and Mobile World Congress 2012 and also at stand alone events all over the world (India and other Asian countries had their own versions of this competition). Microsoft also posed this challenge to the visitors at its retail locations across the US.

According to the statistics released by the company, Windows Phone came out on top 98% of the time out of 50,000 and more cases. There are no details available on the kind of comparisons that were made. The contest seems to have used multiple Windows Phone handhsets all over the world with some areas focussing on the Lumia phones. In the UK Microsoft was betting £100 and dollarsignr100 in the US in Windows Phone’s favor, claiming it ran faster than other phones.

As far as publicity stunts go, this one was quite effective because it made bystanders get actively engaged with the device and see it compared directly with their own devices. And if the numbers are to be believed, the Windows Phone handsets took the crown most of the times.

Windows Phone is slowly increasing its marketshare through gradual rise in the US and also sales in developing markets. Since Nokia and Microsoft and pushing Windows Phone devices with subsidies, the price to performance ratio of these phones are more prized in developing economies where the platform has seen better sales than the US. Microsoft is also waiting on Windows 8 to arrive commercially before going all out on marketing Windows Phone. The new platform is going to unify user experience all across Microsoft platforms that will cover all devices starting from the basic desktop to the laptop, ultraportables, netbooks, tablets, smartphones and hybrid/concept devices.

Smart Reboot And Recovery: Windows 8 Automatically Shows You Recovery Options When Problems Occur

Microsoft has promised to put an end to the endless cycle of reboots when Windows faces a problem.

Windows 8 Will Automaticaly Bring Up Recovery Options And Stop Reboots

Windows 8 will apparently be smart enough to put an end to all the reboots that tend to happen when Windows faces a problem. Chris Clark, a program manager from the Windows User Experience team, penned a post on the new Windows Boot options. There he talked about how the Windows 8 boot times will be under 7 seconds when used with an SSD. He also talked about how the user will be able to trigger boot options in alternative ways since hitting the right key during the actual boot process would be quite hard for most users if not all.

In that post, he also talked about the apparent smartness that the team has built in to the Windows 8 boot process. This is a solution to end all those reboots that the machine would go through if something was preventing the OS from booting properly. Windows 8 will apparently have a smart system built right in to the OS where it will automatically take the user to the boot options menu when it detects two unsuccessful boot attempts in a row. These are new tools that will step in as soon as they detect problems with booting. These tools are now embedded right in to the system.

Windows has gone through this problem before. Upgrades and faulty drivers have often sent the machine in to unending reboot cycles. But with the new system in place, Windows will launch in to the Recovery Environment as soon as it detects two failed attempts. Recovery Envrironment is the name of the new set of diagnostic and recovery tools that will come embedded in the system. With faster boot times, Microsoft has built in multiple ways to trigger boot options outside of the usual F2 and F8 pause keys.

Booting Time Of Windows 8 Claimed To Be Too Fast For The Average User To Access Advanced Boot Options

Microsoft claims Windows 8 users will not have the time to trigger boot options thanks to the superfast boot speeds of the new OS.

Windows 8 Boot Times Claimed To Be Too Fast To Trigger Boot Menu

Microsoft claims that the Windows 8 boot times would be much too fast to allow the average user to trigger the boot menu before the OS boots up. According to a blog post this week, made by program manager Chris Clark from the Windows User Experience Team, the new OS would boot to the desktop in under 7 seconds flat. It would need to be equipped with a Solid State Drive though.

Users with Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7 have ample time to hit F2 or F8 before their systems go in to POST (Power On Self Test). These advanced boot options would let the users perform diagnostics and run recovery tools. It would also allow them to boot from alternative devices. However, that time window in Windows 8 would be about 200 miliseconds when running off an SSD. That is 1/5th of one second, which is short enough for even veteran gamers to find it challenging. So to solve the problem, Microsoft has come up with alternative boot options.

In case Windows cannot boot, it will automatically take the user to the advanced boot options. Even in situations where Windows thinks it can boot such when a display driver is at fault, Windows will still take the user to advanced boot options. The manual way access the boot option (other than hitting the F8 key in the first 200ms) is to go to PC settings through the Settings Charm. But the easiest way to access it would be to hold down the shift key when the hitting the restart button. This was implemented so that boot options can still be accessed when nobody is signed in to the system. There’s also a command line options if you are so inclined — ”Shutdown.exe /r /o” — the “/o” will trigger boot options.

HUGE: Windows 8 Tablets To Reach 80 Inch In Size:Microsoft

Move over Toshiba’s tablet, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has the largest tablet hanging on his office wall running Windows 8 and measuring 80 inches.

Microsoft Chief Works On An 80inch Windows 8 Tablet In His Office

A spokesperson for Microsoft has said that Steve Ballmer uses an 80inch touchscreen in office to run Windows 8 and take care of productivity and communications. According to Frank Shaw, the spokesperson, Ballmer has gotten rid of his phone and notepaper and only uses the giant Windows 8 tablet to perform those tasks. This 80inch behemoth is hung on his office wall.

It would sound like the whim and fancy of the chief of a multi-billion dollar company but according to Shaw, it is actually the basis of a future product. They are actually planning to sell these large touchscreen interfaces in the near future. He would not reveal any details about the date, pricing or the manufacturer either. Our take on this is simple — the future of the ‘Surface’ computers that Microsoft sells as expensive installations to places like large hotel chains and retail businesses.

So far, the official word from Microsoft claims 27inch as the largest possible touchscreen device for Windows 8. They call these touchscreen devices “family hub” devices. Whilst talking about screen sizes earlier this year in March, David Washington (Microsoft Senior Program Manager) said it would cater to families who want to opt for an all-in-one device with a huge touchscreen for using to display photos and share things with the entire family.

Shaw further commented on the possibility of larger touchscreens coming to consumer market via the commercial market. He mentioned how all of these technologies start at the commercial level and then gradually come down to the consumer level. We would like to add that it also becomes much more refined by the time it comes to the consumer.

Microsoft Drops Aero Interface And Aero Themes In Windows 8

Microsoft has revealed that Windows 8 will be doing away with the translucent Aero interface style.

Windows 8 To Be Lighter Thanks To The Absence Of Aero

Introduced in Vista, the Aero interface is the semi-transparent UI syle that drew a lot of praise as well as criticism. It definitely added some freshness to the same old UI but it also meant Vista demanded far more power than Windows XP. Windows 7 took this forward and even though it was faster and more stable than Vista, the Aero interface was still very much present.
Now, Microsoft has revealed in an official blog post that the Aero interface will be done away with completely. This announcement was made on the Building Windows 8 blog by Windows director of program management Jensen Harris.

The new interface will be more Metro inspired. It will be flat and neutral colored. Here’s what Harris had to say about the whole thing

“we have moved beyond Aero Glass – flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distracting gradients.”

This change was already anticipated since the initial days of leaked Windows 8 builds but it lacked an official confirmation. Now even that is in place and there’s no going back to Aero. All the preview builds of Windows 8 so far have featured the Aer inteface but the last and final preview — Release Preview — will probably feature the flat UI as we know it.

The main reasons for these changes are performance, compatibility (with older systems) and to reduce visual clutter and distractions as mentioned above. With Aero gone, Windows 8 would be running much lighter with lesser waste of system resources fo making things look visually glittery. So the main gain that would come out of this decision is a faster OS on the same configuration. This was the main criticism for Aero and now it looks like better sense and prevailed at Microsoft as Windows 8 races towards the yet unannounced release date.

Windows 8 Metro Apps Get Updated Ahead Of Release Preview Launch

The Verge reports fresh updates are on their way for several Windows 8 Metro apps as developers at Microsoft get ready for the release preview.

Microsoft Revamping Core Metro Applications Ahead Of Windows 8 Release Preview Launch

Microsoft is working to release newer, better and more updated versions of its core Metro Applications for Windows 8 ahead of the Release Preview launch. This is a confirmed news from tech news source The Verge because the upgraded apps have already started showing up on the internal builds of Windows 8. These are builds that the consumers don’t have any access to and are only available to the engineers inside Microsoft who are building the project.

These updates not only add new features but they also upgrade the interface and remove the “app preview” label that is very clearly stuck on every core app from Microsoft. Part of this whole upgrade procedure are commonly used apps like Windows 8 Mail, Calendar, People, the messaging app, photos app, music app and more. The Microsoft Reader is also apparently getting quite a lot of updates.
Some of these apps really are in very early stages of development. Like adding accounts to the messaging app after you have dismissed the initial prompt might not happen. Sometimes the accounts side bar just turns up blank. The music app focuses more on Microsoft Marketplace music than your own music stored on the PC. Additionally, the Calendar app has a key feature missing from it — it does not have a function for searching and finding your appointments.

Windows 8 early testers and adopters have been quite concerned with Microsoft for this. The company knows that it is important to have core applications working properly to attain the critical mass of users fast. That is why they are putting in a lot of effort in the latest build of Windows 8 and making sure that it ships with everything nice onboard.

Windows 8 To Offer A Bloatware Cleaning Service

Microsoft has introduced its “Signature Upgrade” service across 21 of its existing and upcoming retails stores for getting rid of the ‘bloatware’ that comes with your PC.

You Can Get Rid Of Bloatware On Windows 8 Devices For dollarsignr99

Bloatware is term used to refer to the useless pile of applications that many device manufacturers and sellers pre-install in to brand new systems right alongside the OS. Some of them are useful but most of them tend to be annoying and useless. The companies use it as a kind of marketing tool and to show it as some kind of value addition to the consumer. The consumer though is tired of it and wants to get rid of it.

Windows 8 is expected to have less of the bloatware that plagues current machines but it will still be there. To get rid of it, consumers might have to resort to Microsoft’s “Signature Upgrade” service that will cost dollarsignr99 to avail. It is already available at all the 21 existing and upcoming retail outlets across the US. There are free tools available online for current Windows versions to do the same thing and hopefully they will be upgraded to serve Windows 8 as well. This service is essentially for those people who are not very comfortable with performing computer maintenance on their own.

Microsoft’s announcement of the service has in fact kickstarted the bloatware issue just as the Windows 8 Release Preview launch is drawing closer. A lot of tech enthusiasts and consumers expected Microsoft to take a step towards preserving the beauty of its new Metro interface by preventing bloatware. But the a “Signature Upgrade” service is now being seen as a confirmation of the fact that bloatware will still be present on new devices.

Microsoft has however taken steps towards reducing this problem to a minimum. According to its license agreements, manufacturers can install only ‘one’ Metro App per external device. An external device would include a printer, a scanner, etc. This might seem like lenient but it would still improve the situation a lot because previously manufacturers would install multiple pieces of software for just one device. Think of an HP printer suite or DVD writer application suites and you will get the picture.

AT&T Chief Believes Windows Phone Will Benefit From Windows 8

The Lumia 900 has already exceeded expectations after it came to AT&T and company chief Ralph de la Vega believes the growth will increase after Windows 8 is launched.

Windows 8 Will Help Windows Phone Grow Up Further

AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega is of the opinion that Windows 8 will help Windows Phone see more growth. He was speaking at the JP Morgan technology conference when a question came up about the Lumia. He said the Lumia 900 had ‘exceeded their expectations’ once it appeared on their service. So they now have renewed hopes for Microsoft to have its stand right up there with iOS and Android.

He praised the Windows Phone OS on Nokia’s Lumia and said it was simple, intuitive and hence easy to use. De la Vega was apparently quite pleased with the first product of Microsoft and Nokia’s joint venture.
The CEO then went on to say that the Windows 8 launch will add to the value that the Windows Phone OS brings to the marketplace. He talked about how the OS will provide a seamless experience across desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones and said that he likes the previews that he has been shown so far. According to him, it is going to be an exceptionally good OS and he is excited about it.

De la Vega seems to be saying things directly opposite to what the analysts are saying. A lot of analysts have been negative about Windows 8, either saying it will fail to make an impact or fail altogether as a platform. However, business owners like AT&T’s CEO have actively maintained a positive tone towards the upcoming platform.

Microsoft is obviously betting big on the OS and it could become a runaway hit after all. So far, the general public seems to like the Lumia a lot but that is also because it is currently the cheapest high-end smartphone with a modern OS that you can buy.

Customizing This OS: Use Classic shell to get a Classic Start menu in Windows 8?

To install and use classic shell in Windows 8, refer to the tutorial below.

Microsoft introduces Metro User Interface in Windows 8. The new Metro User Interface just looks awesome. But if you don’t like it and want to use the old Start menu back along with the new Metro UI, then you will need a third party software : ‘Classic shell’. This application gives you the start menu look like old pattern start menu. It also has a way to switch to Metro UI if you wish to do so.

How to install and Customize Classic Shell Install?

During installation of ‘Classic shell’ application, by default all four features are installed i.e.
Classic Explorer, Classic Start menu, Classic IE9 and Classic Shell update are installed.
If you do not want other features to be installed, make them unavailable at the time of installation.

How to use Classic Shell?

After installation, you will get the classic start menu which is very familiar for you. One think I must mention that, If you are worrying that I shall never see the Metro UI again, then relax, use Shift + (left Mouse) click on the start menu icon to get the Metro Start screen.
And also, you can access all metro apps from Programs in the start menu.

Can I customize Classic Shell?

Yes, of course you can. Right click on start menu icon, and you will get the options. Click Settings .

Classic shell gives you freedom to set skins, to change program behaviour, customize context menu & many more. Switch to All settings from basic Settings to get all customization options.