Windows might be the most popular operating system for desktop computers and notebooks out there, but there are certain areas where Apple’s OS X leaves the Redmond offering biting the dust. While the list is rather large (system stability, quality of applications, notification center and the device ecosystem, just to name a few), top of the list is the aesthetics of the operating system itself. Every element of the OS, be it buttons, navigation/scroll bars or any other area, is beautifully crafted and gives a pleasing environment to work with. It may be just my personal opinion and preference, but even if you look at just how OS X takes a snapshot, you’ll see what I mean.
Animated wallpapers are something many people enjoy as a backdrop to their desktop experience, and Stardock has long since facilitated this preference with its popular DeskScapes app for Windows. With Microsoft having dropped Windows 8 at the tail end of last year, it has taken a while for Stardock to come through with an update to render DeskScapes compatible with the new operating system, but recently, said update arrived in the form of DeskScapes 8.
Hate Windows Vista as much as you like, but the fact remains that Microsoft’s failed intermittent operating system between the incredibly famous Windows XP and Windows 7 set the grounds for the major leap that the Redmond company took from the former to the latter, both in terms of feature set and graphical uplift, and not to exclude user experience. Windows 7 itself was a huge success, and from the looks of it, Windows 8 is following in its footsteps, despite the controversy surrounding the removal of Start Orb (and menu) from the operating system.
Microsoft’s Surface RT is a thing of beauty, and that comes from personal experience. The tablet is solidly built, with amazing externals and powerful hardware inside. The display on the Surface RT tablet, too, is stellar, and puts to shame many in the competing arena. That said, the only proper limitation that comes packaged with the tablet, is its inherent ability to run only ARM applications. In other words, you can forget all your legacy x86 apps and remain stuck with only those that Microsoft has approved, and is selling through, the Windows Store. This restriction is not limited only to the Surface RT tablet, either; all Windows RT tablets suffer the same dilemma, and for those users that are looking for an alternative solution, the choice lies in opting for either the much-pricier Surface Pro, or any other Windows 8 Pro-based tablet.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 19 for users of the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and among a plethora of new features comes an in-built PDF viewer. Since increasing its release schedule, Mozilla has stuck almost religiously to its six-week cycles, and although it's rare - in software terms - to see a whole number update pertaining to only a few minor changes, it helps Mozilla keep up with Google's rampant Chrome browser.
Mozilla's biggest export is Firefox, and with Windows 8 having been in circulation for a few months now, the next stage of preparations for a version of the popular browser tailored to Microsoft's latest OS release have begun. Last week, the Metro/Modern-ized browser reached Mozilla's nightly build channel, and today, it has reached Mozilla-central. Although Firefox desktop product manager Asa Dotzler confessed there is still "plenty of work" to be done, it has now reached a point where it is stable enough for regular testing.
The release of Windows 8, has, quite inevitably been followed by the release of Office 2013 and Office 360, but this time around, the Redmond company has been hard at work on several other apps as it tries to establish its new-look operating system across its vast user base. The Windows Store needs as many decent new apps as it can get, and today, another in-house offering arrives in the form of My Server.
When working with computers, if there’s one thing that’s inevitable, that’s the need to reinstall the operating system at some point. Perhaps it was some software installation that went wrong, or maybe the registry entries getting corrupted, but ultimately, you’re bound to come across a time when you will just want to start fresh and get your computer back to the state it was in at the time you bought it first. With Windows, this has been especially true through the OS’s life cycle, starting with Windows 3.x and all the way up to Windows 8. It’s undeniable that with Windows 7 and now Windows 8, the issue has become less prominent, thanks to the OS development, but still, the time does come, and you have to be ready for it.
After playing the waiting game and sitting in review with Microsoft for just over a month, the official Dropbox app for devices powered by Windows 8 and Windows RT is now available as a free of charge download from the Windows Store. The app has probably taken a little longer to go through the verification process than Dropbox would have liked, but the most important aspect is that owners of Windows 8/RT machines and devices now have official access to their Dropbox accounts through the natively produced app.
Bradley Mauk, the guy that created the remote control app for the Windows Phone 7 Media Center, has come through with yet another useful remote control app for those on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. As was the case with the Windows Phone 7 edition, you can easily and conveniently control Windows Media Center right from your Windows 8 / RT device.
