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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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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Windows 7 has a relatively simple user interface, but have you ever wished it looked a little more like Android? Deviant Art’s hameddanger has put together an Android Skin Pack that gives Windows 7 a little bit of an Android-inspired makeover. The utility doesn’t let you run Android apps on a Windows computer, but it moves the taskbar to the…

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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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TechEd 2011 New Zealand is in full swing, and Microsoft looks to be playing a little bit of show-and-tell with the next generation of Windows and the devices that will run it. Among the devices shown was an unnamed quad-core Windows tablet. What else is known about the slate? Not much, other than that Microsoft’s Jeff Johnson stated that the…

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Microsoft has already showed that Windows 8 will offer a radically redesigned user interface meant for tablets and computers with touchscreen displays (although you’ll still be able to use the old-fashioned desktop, taskbar, and start menu view if you like). Now the company is starting to talk about some of the other features coming in Windows 8 on a new…

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Once upon a time a computer was a big ole thing that took up a whole room. These days we tend to think of computers as desktop, laptop, or even tablet devices that don’t take up a lot of space, but which don’t fit in your pocket. But smartphones today have far more computing power than so-called personal computers of…

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After that whole Vista mess, Microsoft learned a valuable lesson about hardware requirements and its operating systems. First, it’s a terrible idea to let your OEM partners ship systems that are barely capable of running the new OS you’re asking them to install on them. Second, if you can deliver a new OS that runs on hardware that could run…

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ViewSonic has been showing off an early version of the ViewPad 10Pro tablet for the last few months, but this week at Computex the tablet is getting a more formal introduction. The tablet’s claim to fame is that it runs Windows 7 Professional but also includes special software allowing you to run Google Android on top of Windows. You can…

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Microsoft is working on a new version of its flagship Windows operating system which will run on computers with ARM-based processors as well as x86 chips. We’ve known that since January. What we didn’t know for certain was what it would mean for legacy apps. But now Intel is confirming that the version of Windows 8 which will run on…

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You know how the next version of Microsoft Windows is supposed to be able to run on ARM-based processors? It looks like Microsoft already has working builds of Windows on ARM, because when the company showed off the first preview version of Internet Explorer today, the folks at Engadget noticed that the demo computer had a 1 GHz ARM-based chip….

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There’s a rumor going around, thanks to a post at a Chinese forum, that Microsoft may be seeding early builds of Windows 8 to manufacturers for testing purposes. Windows 8 isn’t expected to officially launch until next year, but a public beta could be available later this year. Microsoft plans to make Windows 8 compatible with low power ARM-based processors,…

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