windows 8

Microsoft's Windows Store has hit the 100,000 apps mark in short order.

"Thanks for a great \\build! Just passed 100k apps in the Windows Store," Microsoft tweeted earlier today.

That was fast. Windows 8 was launched only last October.

How fast? Google took longer to reach that point -- roughly two years after the Android Market formally opened for business.

And it took about a year and a half for the iPad to garner 100,000 iPad-specific apps. "The platform has been out for 453 days, with developers getting access to its software development kit … Read more

I'm starting to rethink this whole touch-screen thing.

In the past I've come down on the "meh" side of touch-screen laptops, feeling like it doesn't really add anything to the Windows experience. Nice, sure, but not really necessary.

Then, over the weekend, I was gathered around my laptop with my sister, brother-in-law, and other family members, looking at listings for rescue dogs. (Yeah, we're adopting.) And as everyone congregated, to a person they reached for the screen and tried to make the page scroll.

After I yelled at them to "stop getting fingerprints … Read more

Windows 8 has hit a new milestone. It's now the third most used operating system in the world, at least in the eyes of market tracker Net Applications.

For the month of June, Windows 8 scored 5.1 percent of all desktop OS Web traffic seen by Net Applications. That boost helped Microsoft's latest OS finally leapfrog over Windows Vista, which grabbed a 4.62 percent share last month.

The most recent figure showed a healthy gain for Windows 8 from its 4.27 percent share in May and continued growth since its official release in October. Over … Read more

Windows 8.1 may fix Microsoft's dot-zero release but it may not fix the PC market.

After Citi Research revised its PC market growth forecast down to negative 10 percent growth earlier in the month, market researcher IDC chimed in on Friday with a less-than-upbeat snapshot for May.

"May results reflect deteriorating conditions rather than improvement and the market will probably fall short of projections," said Loren Loverde, an IDC analyst in a statement, referring to May regional PC shipments.

"The results for May are behind pace for achieving the projected [second quarter 2013] growth rate,&… Read more

Will new Windows 8.1 hybrids finally expose the iPad for what it really is, a mere tablet?

That's what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested this week.

When speaking at the company's Build Conference on Wednesday, he described in colorful -- and maybe just a tad exaggerated -- terms how tablets don't measure up to laptops (or even pencil and paper).

Enter the "2-in-1," as Microsoft likes to call hybrids. During his keynote presentation, Ballmer brandished the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix as an example of a 2-in-1 he has used.

The Helix can be a pure … Read more

The Windows 8 Start screen is largely a love-it-or-hate affair. But even those who aren't too keen on the screen may welcome the new ways you can customize it in the Windows 8.1 Preview.

Right off the bat, Windows 8.1 offers a dedicated Customize button for the Start screen where you can tweak a variety of settings. Right-click anywhere on the Start screen to display the app bar and click on the Customize button. You can also right-click on any tile to open the Customize view.

The screen dims slightly. You can now drag and drop any … Read more

Those of you eager to check out the new Windows 8.1 Preview have a few choices as to how and where to install it. Let's cut right to the chase and review the different options.

Update Windows 8 If you're already running Windows 8, you can simply update it to Windows 8.1 via the Windows Store, as CNET's Jason Cipriani explained earlier this week.

One word of warning before you proceed, however. The Windows 8.1 preview is essentially a beta of the new OS and is by no means a finished or polished version. … Read more

Steve Ballmer's not a man given to standing still on stage for long, but for a brief moment Wednesday morning, he struck a pose in front of some of the most devoted Microsoft developers with his left arm jackknifed, hand on hip.

It was a pugnacious posture, defiant yet also expressing confidence in Microsoft's public rebuilding of Windows. Microsoft's chief executive made the case at Build 2013 that while things may not always be smooth, the company was heading in the right direction.

Ballmer emphasized a new philosophy at Microsoft, offering up what he termed a "… Read more

The Windows 8 Start screen is a good starting point for Windows 8 devices with touch screens, but on PCs with standard screens, you might prefer to boot directly to the desktop. Previously, you could bypass the Windows 8 Start screen with Start8, but Windows 8.1 now lets you do it natively. Here's how:

Step 1: Right-click on the Windows 8.1 taskbar, then choose Properties.

Step 2: Click on the Navigation tab, then under the Start screen section, check the box next to "Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in."

The … Read more