windows

Windows 8 is slowly carving out a slightly larger slice of the OS market.

The latest flavor of Windows captured 3.17 percent of all desktop OS traffic tracked by Net Applications in March. That was a small gain from the 2.67 percent share in February.

Since its official debut last October, Windows 8 has very gradually risen up the ranks, at least in Net Applications' Web traffic reports.

Starting with a 1.09 percent share in November, the OS carved out a 1.72 percent share in December. It then grabbed a 2.26 percent share in January, … Read more

Dell painted a somewhat bleak depiction of its prospects in a recent SEC filing.

In a 274-page filing on Friday, the PC maker indicated market and product challenges on several fronts. In the filing, Dell makes a case for accepting a $24.4 billion offer to go private so it can be in a better position to deal with the myriad challenges facing the company.

Those included "the deteriorating outlook for the PC market as a result of, among other things, smartphones and tablets cannibalizing PC sales," according to the filing.

The SEC filing also cited "the … Read more

Welcome to the third generation of Vizio PCs. You won't find many things different technology-wise in this round compared with previous models. The biggest news is that the laptops -- two 14-inch, and two 15.6-inch models -- all ship with touch screens now. Vizio's all-in-ones already had touch screens, but this generation gets a CPU bump, and higher prices to match. Vizio has also added wireless networking adapters that support the new 802.11ac standard across the lineup.

For the laptops, the 14-inch Touch Thin+Light CT14T-B0 comes it at the lowest price, going for $1,089.… Read more

Microsoft's move to relax the minimum resolution for Windows 8 devices could trigger a slew of seven-inch Windows 8 tablets.

An update to Microsoft's Windows Certification Newsletter, uncovered by Ed Bott of CNET sister site ZDNet announced the change in the required resolution for Windows 8 tablets.

To claim Windows 8 certification, a tablet can now offer a minimum resolution of 1,024x768 at a depth of 32 bits. That's a change from the previous guidelines, which specify a minimum resolution of 1,366x768. Microsoft said it isn't encouraging device makers to shoot for such a … Read more

Microsoft's next version of Internet Explorer might just support WebGL, a standard for accelerated 3D graphics on the Web that the company previously has attacked as a security risk.

A leaked version of the next version of Windows, code-named Blue, came with a version of IE11, and developer's scrutiny of the browser shows evidence of WebGL.

"It seems like WebGL interfaces are defined but not functional at this time," said Web developer and author Francois Remy in a blog post this week. That means that the IE11 build has some infrastructure in place to support WebGL, … Read more

A breathless rumor about Microsoft merging Windows RT with Blue is a misunderstanding of the facts, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Asia-based rumor last night was that Microsoft would merge Windows RT with its upcoming Windows Blue tech. But technically that's already a given, a source close to Microsoft told CNET.

The codebases are already the same so there's nothing technically to merge, according to the source. There's one Windows Store for both ARM and Intel-based x86 devices, so people don't have to visit a different Store depending on the chip their … Read more

The next version of Windows will be able to show you the same Start screen across all your Windows 8 devices.

Investigating the latest enhancements destined for Windows Blue, Supersite for Windows creator Paul Thurrott was greeted by the same Start screen on two different Windows 8 PCs. This means that users who log in with their Microsoft account will see the same Start screen tiles, layout, and color scheme across all their Windows 8 devices.

The actual Start Screen sync feature in the PC Settings screen isn't yet working in the current Windows Blue build. But users should … Read more

Formerly known as plain old YouTube Downloader, the recently renamed YTD Video Downloader updates to version 4.0 with a promise of 2x faster downloads and 2x faster video conversions, and perhaps more usefully, the ability to resume downloads after the temporary loss of an Internet connection. As usual, the installer includes a Spigot-based YTD Video Toolbar and offers to change your default search engine to Yahoo and add 5-6 shopping extensions to Google Chrome. Clicking the "Decline" button during the lone advertising screen in the installer lets users easily opt-out of all offers.

Downloading worked very well … Read more