windows

In the wake of Microsoft's decision to pull its Yahoo offer, executives are trying to make the case that Redmond's online business can go it alone.

Speaking to investors Tuesday, Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall tried to bring the focus back to what Microsoft is doing on its own, rather than what might have been.

"We've withdrawn the offer and moved on, and now are focused on how we grow as fast as possible organically," Hall said, speaking at a Merrill Lynch technology conference.

Pressed further on the point, Hall said Yahoo would have … Read more

Sure, you can safeguard your PC with various freeware security apps, but there's something to be said for having a single program that protects you from viruses, spyware, phishing, hackers, and so on. Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is such a program, and Amazon has it on sale for $30--minus a $30 mail-in rebate. Shipping is free, bringing the grand total to zero dollars.

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 (wow, what an embarrassingly bad name) combines real-time anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-phishing tools with a managed firewall, a data backup utility, and system optimization. You can protect … Read more

Not every social networking concept strikes gold, even when the coalescing factor is the common interest of finding a good Internet cafe. In the case of WeFi, a hot-spot-finding application with a social community tacked on, various CNET editors have raised a collective eyebrow at some of the more intense methods of attaining human connection, but largely agree that being able to chat with verified friends or nearby Internet surfers adds a useful dimension to the search for reliable Wi-Fi access in comfortable coffee shops.

This First Look at WeFi for Windows laptops and WeFi for Pocket PC tours WeFi'… Read more

Let the Xperia hysteria begin. Thanks to loose-lipped mobile content provider Handango, we may now know the general launch date of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. According to a newsletter Handango sent out to its partners, the highly anticipated Windows Mobile smartphone will launch in "mid-September 2008" with the Handango InHand service onboard. The company also noted that if partners want their software to be considered for the catalog, it must support "International English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish," so presumably, the smartphone will be available in appropriate markets. Now, we're not taking this as … Read more

Fact: HTC will hold a press conference in London tomorrow (May 6) to make an announcement that will highlight the "next wave of HTC innovation." Rumor: the company is expected to introduce the HTC Touch Diamond, the next-gen HTC Touch, as well as a couple of other possible smartphones. Now, we're not really ones to gossip but chances are fairly good that the Touch Diamond will, in fact, show its pretty face tomorrow.

The rumors have been swirling around the blogosphere for a couple of weeks now, but just last week HTC executive Cheng Hui-ming confirmed the … Read more

Your computer's dashboard is that small row of icons located along the bottom of the screen--at least that's where it's located on most PCs. Windows' taskbar shows you at a glance which applications are open and which programs are running in the background (represented by the icons in your system tray just to the left of the clock, though it's not an exhaustive list).

If you have your Quick Launch toolbar active, you also see shortcuts to open various apps, show the desktop, or perform other operations with a single click. Your taskbar's skills go … Read more

Last year, I wrote that, as a computer nerd, I hold this truth to be self-evident: All new software contains bugs and design flaws. As a programmer, I can understand the inevitability of bugs. Design flaws are another matter.

The May 1st issue of Sunbelt Software's Vista News newsletter highlighted some mistakes in the design of Windows Vista.

An item called "Don't accidentally delete that Recycle Bin!" describes how a number of Vista users deleted their Recycle Bin by accident, most likely while trying to empty it. If you right click on the Recycle Bin icon … Read more

The all-singing, all-dancing embodiment of frustration is when my computer acts sluggish for no good reason. I know I've got plenty of RAM and a decent processor, so why won't the blasted contraption do as it's told? RAM boosting programs just never seem to work as well as they should, and so a few weeks ago I began digging into other possible sources of those embarrassing and annoying computus interruptus moments.

One possible solution is to manually adjust your virtual memory, stored in a paging file.

Why do this? Isn't your onboard RAM enough? Well, don'… Read more

In the 15 months since Windows Vista had its mainstream launch, Microsoft says it's made progress on a number of key metrics: things like application compatibility, availability of drivers, performance, reliability, and battery life.

But there is one area where the company has struggled to gain ground: how Vista is perceived.

"There's certainly a perceptual gap there," Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said in an interview Thursday. He pointed to Microsoft research that shows that 86 percent of those actually using Vista would recommend it to a friend.

"The perception of Vista is … Read more