Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
  • CNET
  • All Windows posts

Windows

Vista won't be abandoned so here's how to fix it

Since Microsoft has abandoned my plan of abandoning Vista, I feel compelled to help the company out in any way I can. And while I still believe abandoning Vista is the only true option of fixing Windows, I can appreciate the fact that Microsoft has dumped a huge sum of cash into the OS and it's loath to lose out.

Of course, with reports suggesting Vista will become a target for hackers in 2008 and now, even Microsoft executives have no idea what "Vista Capable" really means, I can't help but think this operating system is tanking faster than Microsoft Bob.

But I digress. Although Windows XP running Service Pack 3 is almost twice as fast as Windows Vista running SP1 and major hardware manufacturers are still selling XP machines out of desire for once, Microsoft wants to hold on to Vista regardless of where it takes the company. Will it force the company into a tailspin? I think it already has. Will it get worse? Possibly. But if Microsoft heeds my warnings and follows some of the tips I will outline below, Windows Vista may not be the utter failure I think it will be if nothing changes.… Read more

Save 25 percent on smartphone software

Online software store Handmark carries a broad range of titles for BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, and other smartphones. What? Huh? You can add software to your phone?!

It always surprises me how few people know this, or don't bother to venture beyond the preinstalled software. Well, now's your chance to score some games, apps, utilities, and more at a discount. From now through Wednesday, Handmark is offering 25 percent off all software purchases. Just enter the promo code "SITE25" when you check out.

"Serious Windows flaw" could put "vast numbers" of computers at risk

Windows is hyper-secure. Just ask Microsoft.

But if you ask people outside Redmond, like Beau Butler, who demonstrated a massive hole in Microsoft's Windows security last week, things aren't so rosy, as The Register reports.

Microsoft knows about the flaw and spent the Thanksgiving holiday trying to fix the error, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald:

The flaw is an old one, first exposed and apparently fixed more than five years ago. But it appears Microsoft's fix was only partially effective. [GASP!]… Read more

Vista makes the list as one of the top-10 worst consumer tech products of all time

I'll admit: I've used Vista once or twice and I didn't think it was all that bad. I didn't run into the horrible nannying that others reported. But CNET's Crave still felt compelled to rank it up (er, down) with products like The Squircle:

Oh, the Squircle. Not only the product with the lowest score on CNET.co.uk, but the one we felt less love for than our televisions editor feels for his PC. This MP3 player, complete with zero megabytes of internal memory and lump-of-dirt design, had the audacity to sit on shelves asking for money.

This MP3 player uses SD cards to store music. Nay-sayers, don't shout just yet. While an MP3 player running on removable media sounds moderately useful, bear in mind it sounds about as pleasant as a baby seal being clubbed to death. Why such a product even exists is utterly beyond our combined comprehension.

So, you can see the kind of company Vista keeps. Crave writes:… Read more

Sync offers hands-free control

Microsoft and Ford bought a lot of advertisements on NFL football broadcasts over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. The companies are pushing Sync, which is the latest outgrowth of Microsoft's decade-long effort to provide software for use in automobiles.

In this case, Microsoft might actually succeed. Simplicity is the key: unlike past scenarios floated for the Windows Automotive platform, Sync isn't intended to help control your car (leading to the inevitable blue screen jokes) or connect to the Internet or serve as the back-end for an in-car control panel. Instead, it gives you voice command over Bluetooth-enabled phones and … Read more

Enjoy the fake sunshine with a fake window

Remember the Fake Sun Roof? Now there's a pretend window you can put up on a blank wall too.

Designed by Mongoose, it's a potential solution for overworked, underpaid underlings who complain that they're stuck in a window-less room all day. To create that clever illusion of sunlight, Makoto Hirahara's Bright Blind uses electroluminescent sheets. If the fake sunlight gets a bit too bright, simply adjust the blind down just like the real thing.

According to gnr8, these are custom-made and available, though other gadget blogs state that it's still a concept. Whatever the case, … Read more

Leopard and new Mac apps are bumming me out

Let me preface this post with the fact that I have been a sworn Mac user since 1995. Let me add that a few weeks ago I tried to use Windows just for my trip to Japan, and I bailed out after one painful day. I even had our IT guy kill a perfectly good Thinkpad with Ubuntu I hated Vista so much.

When Leopard came out a few weeks ago (it was a Friday) I went to the Apple store in San Francisco to buy it immediately but got spiked until the 6 p.m. grand reveal. So, the next day I went downtown first thing and picked up both Leopard and the new iLife. Easy enough.

I expected a few bumps in the upgrade of the OS and the applications. Sure enough, that happened but it was nothing major.

It has only been after a few weeks of usage that I find myself experiencing both OS and application crashes reminiscent of the mid-'90s when you had to obsessively save your work since you knew your Mac was going to crash at some point. I was bred into a "save early, save often" Mac culture at my first job in NYC where people would occasionally lose hours worth of work.

That was then, this is now. Or so I thought. … Read more