The Universal Serial Bus interface, more commonly known as the USB, is perhaps the most useful invention in the world of computers and technology after the floppy disk. The bus provides a standardized media and input/output interface that has truly revolutionized how removable devices and other peripherals connect and interact with computers all over the world. Today, USB-interface is used not only for removable storage media, but also for the likes of printers, human interface devices (like mice and keyboards), gamepads, speakers, device connections, and lots of other cool gadgets that you’d just like to have sitting around on your desk while you work. If you really think about it, you’ll hardly find yourself using any other port on your PC or laptop more than the USB ports.
The Windows 8 umbrella of products are definitely promising, but one thing that has been quite clearly lacking thus far is number and selection of apps. The interface itself is generally lauded by those using it, but apps have been a nagging issue, and as the world still waits for a Windows 8 Facebook app, one third-party developer has given a little false-hope, if you will. Windows 8 and Windows RT owners have been pining for official Facebook support, and while neither Microsoft nor Facebook seem to be offering any straight answers, an app entitled "Facebook" made an impromptu entry to the Windows Store today. Unfortunately, despite looking every bit the real deal, it has turned out to be the brainchild of Pearl Apps LLC.
I personally like Windows 8 a lot. The missing Start Orb doesn’t bother me, since I have pretty smoothly adapted to the new Start Screen (I find it more convenient, in fact), and even if some of the features have been buried down deep within the operating system, that actually piques up the geek inside me, making it more challenging to use the operating system with as much ease as its earlier variants. However, that nowhere implies that everyone is a power user, and for casual ones, some of these hidden items are downright annoying. Take the ability to turn your laptop into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, for instance; it was all too easy under Windows 7 thanks to the ad hoc network support. With Windows 8, things have become more complicated.
Troubleshooting a Windows based PC has many steps. You may try System Restore if you need, or play around with MSConfig utility, or try system recovery, depending on the nature of problem that you’re facing. Among all the commonly-used troubleshooting steps, Safe Mode is one of the most frequently-used ones. Booting your computer up in Safe Mode is something you’d always try if facing some issue with normal start up, even if you don’t know much about what you’re doing. This has been the norm for PC users for years, until Windows 8, where the Safe Mode went missing all of a sudden. Similar to wireless ad-hoc connection in Windows 8, it’s not like this start up mode has been taken out; it’s just been buried deep, and requires some steps to be activated. In this post, we’ll guide you how to boot up a Windows 8 PC in Safe Mode.
Our computers, notebooks, tablets and smartphones are like mystical libraries of endless possibility, enabling us to carry out almost any task with ease. Despite offering a wealth of information and communication, we often call upon our personal gadgets and machines for the simplest of queries. Whether it be a calculator to perform a basic sum, a clock to tell us what time it is, or a weather update to plan a perfect picnic, we get much of this information from those aforementioned entities.
An operating system upgrade is always worth having, in my opinion. Newer changes are almost always valuable, and the ability to utilize the latest technology on your smartphone, tablet, computer or laptop is a much-needed benefit. Similar holds true for Windows – the world’s most used PC operating system – where Windows 8 is the latest and greatest in the choices that you have. A lot of people have their issues with the operating system, but that isn’t stopping Microsoft from making constant updates to the OS, making it even better than before. I leave the debate of how useful Windows 8 is at that, and come to something that’s actually limited in the operating system: backward compatibility. Up until Windows 7, Microsoft allowed users to run applications that were compatible with, say, Windows XP, but that has been taken out in the latest iteration of Windows.
Considering that Windows 8 is still relatively new, and that a lot of people are still trying to adapt to the new operating system with its unorthodox design and layout changes, problems are nothing surprising. One of the issues, apart from the subjective criticism that the operating system has been receiving, is certain folders slowing down under Windows 8. More specifically, this complaint has been lodged repeatedly against the Downloads folder, whereby users claim that clicking the Downloads directory from the sidebar, to the actual folder’s contents loading up, can take up to 10 minutes in worst cases. While I haven’t personally encountered the problem, there are some steps that you can take to remedy the situation, not just for Downloads, but for any folder that slows down under Windows 8.
The Apple iPad is so popular right now, that the word "iPad" is often used synonymously with the word "tablet." Although tablets already existed in various forms prior to the 2010 release of the first-generation iPad, Apple really forged a competitive market, and nearly three years and four generations later, the iPad is still by far the most popular slate of them all.
With the Surface RT struggling to pick up momentum and sales in the tablet market, Microsoft desperately needs to call upon plan B, and in a move that'll no doubt inject a little life into the Surface brand, the software maker has revealed pricing details of the upcoming Surface Pro. Unlike the current slate, it will run on Windows 8 Pro rather than the - for lack of a better phrase - watered-down offering in Windows RT. Legacy apps will be supported on the Intel-powered device, meaning those looking to really get some use out of the Surface won't need to rely on the very, very slim pickings over at the Windows Store.
Having met its long-awaited released date on 26th October, Windows 8 is truly here, and as a testament to just how consumers have responded to the new operating system, the 40 million mark has already been passed in terms of licenses sold.
