Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky has announced that Windows 8 for devices with ARM-based processors is on track to launch at the same time as Windows 8 for computers with x86 and x64 chips. He’s also confirmed that Windows on ARM (WOA) will look and feel almost exactly like WIndows for x86 — but there will be some key differences. What…

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Microsoft is preparing to launch the first “Consumer Preview” of Windows 8. The company is holding an event on February 29th at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain to kick off the launch. The Consumer Preview follows the Developer Preview that the company launched in September, 2011. While Microsoft isn’t using the words “alpha,” or “beta” to describe exactly where in the…

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Microsoft has released a new security tool for Windows PCs called Windows Defender Offline Tool which you can use to scan you computer for malware before Windows even boots. Windows Defender Offline is currently in beta, and you can download the installer for free. You’ll then use that utility to set up a bootable CD, DVD, or USB flash drive so that…

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Microsoft is changing the way Windows Update works for Windows 8. You’ll still be able to choose whether to download and install updates automatically or manually, but Microsoft is trying to minimize the number of times you’ll have to restart your computer after applying a software update. Like all versions of Windows, the new operating system will have to restart your…

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Ten years ago today Microsoft released Windows XP. And around the world, millions of people are still running the aging operating system on desktop, laptop, and tablet computers even though Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP directly to consumers a few years ago. You could probably make a case that Windows XP changed the way we think about operating systems. Or…

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Apparently the reports of the Microsoft Zune HD’s demise have been greatly a tiny bit exaggerated premature. The Zune HD is Microsoft’s portable media player with a touchscreen display and first generation NVIDIA Tegra processor. It’s been on the market since 2009 and the Windows Phone 7 user interface (and especially the music and video apps) were largely inspired by the Zune…

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Microsoft’s Zune HD portable media player has been on life support for a while… now the company has officially pulled the plug. A page on the Zune support website states that Microsoft will no longer be making Zune players, and will instead focus on Windows Phone. Update: Microsoft says the Zune HD isn’t dead yet… but all signs certainly point…

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Microsoft’s Zune Pass service lets subscribers listen to 14 million songs on-demand for a monthly fee. Right now you can also download and save up to 10 of those songs each month for no additional charge. It’s sort of like buying an album every month and getting a free on-demand radio service for your PC, Zune media player, or Windows…

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Before a computer boots Windows, OS X, Linux, or any other operating system it loads system-level firmware. For the past few decades most PCs have used something called BIOS to recognize your hardware and load the appropriate operating system. But there’s a new kid in town called UEFI, (which is what Macs have been using for the past few years)….

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While Microsoft got its start in desktop computer software, the company isn’t exactly a bit player in the online world. Microsoft’s Hotmail email service was hot long before Google entered the email game. Bing may be something of an also-ran in the search engine department, but it’s actually not bad at all (seriously, have you tried it lately?) And the…

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Microsoft has made it clear that Windows 8 will be designed to work as well on touchscreen devices including tablets and all-in-one computers as on traditional desktop and laptop computers. One of the keys to this strategy is a new “Metro style” application framework for touch-friendly software. Developers will be able to write Desktop style or Metro style apps –…

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Last night Microsoft made the first developer preview version of Windows 8 available for download from dev.windows.com. As of this morning, CEO Steve Ballmer says the operating system has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. That certainly shows there’s a lot of interest in Microsoft’s new operating system. This is still an early version that’s been released for testing purposes…

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