Below you will find the latest articles about Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 9. In addition an occasional Random Thought and Quick Takes.
Click on the XP Tips, Windows 7 Korner, Windows 8 Korner, Dual Boot Korner Tabs to find even more articles.
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Microsoft's Windows 8.1 Will Be A Free Update For Windows 8 Users Seeking Improvements
Windows Vista – How to Dual Boot Windows Vista with Windows 8
May 6th, 2013
How to protect your existing installation of Windows Vista and evaluate Windows 8 over the coming months ----->
Windows XP – How to Dual Boot Windows XP with Windows 8
April 14th, 2013
How to protect your existing installation of Windows XP and evaluate Windows 8 over the coming months ----->
Windows 7 - How to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 October 20th, 2012 - Revised 04/17/13 - Improved series of Windows 8 installation screen shots.
The goal here is to create a Windows 7 and Windows 8 Dual Boot computer while protecting your investment in Windows 7 (should any problems occur) or you simply do not to continue using Windows 8.----->
How to Dual Boot Windows 8 with Windows 7 January 18th, 2013 (Revised March 7th, 2013)
Your newly purchased computer or the one you just built has Windows 8 installed. You now want to install Windows 7 as a second operating system thus creating a Dual Boot computer and giving you the best of both worlds.----->
Windows 8 - chkdsk always runs on a Dual Boot computer
December 19th, 2012
If you have a dual boot computer with more than one disk drive you may have noticed that after booting to Windows 8 and then booting to your other version of Windows that chkdsk runs before you can boot to Windows 7, Vista or XP ----->
Windows 8 - Selective Startup
October 23rd, 2012
Windows 8 always reverts to "Selective startup" no matter which OS is set as the "Default" OS ----->
Windows 7 and Windows 8 Dual Boot - How to change the “Default” Operating System to Windows 7 October 22nd, 2012
After installing Windows 8 it becomes the default operating system that loads if you take no action and wait for the 30 second timeout to expire. Here is how you can change it so that Windows 7 is the default ----->
How to uninstall Windows 8 from your Windows 7 Dual Boot computer:
October 3rd, 2012
If you need to keep Windows 7 but want to uninstall Windows 8 from your Dual Boot computer ----->
Windows XP – How to Dual Boot Windows XP with Windows 8
April 14th, 2013
How to protect your existing installation of Windows XP and evaluate Windows 8 over the coming months ----->
XP Support ends in one year
April 8th, 2013
One year from to Microsoft ends all support for Windows XP ----->
Windows XP - moving to Windows 7 - Updated 12/17/12 (The Blue Mouse Pad Caper)
December 8th, 2012
My everyday computer which uses Windows XP (I have several others which I use to develop article for the web site and product evaluation and testing) started to fail in late October and I decided to move from my 2 year old XP PC to a new Windows 7 system I built. Read the full story here ----->
God Mode in Windows 7 also works in Windows 8, It took longer than I thought for someone to discover this. I dislike the name God Mode so I suggest using a name like “Super Control Panel” when you create the folder. This new folder reveals dozens of previously hidden or hard to find features. ----->
Microsoft's first Windows 8 update to be named “Windows 8.1”. Updated April 2nd, 2013 ----->
Windows 8 Korner
Microsoft's Windows 8.1 Will Be A Free Update For Windows 8 Users Seeking Improvements
If you are unable to load Windows or if your PC isn't performing as well as it once did, and you don't know why, you can refresh your PC without deleting any of your personal files or changing your settings. ----->
How to activate Windows 8 by phone
February 18th, 2013
Step by step information to help you activate Windows 8 by phone ----->
How to put the Start button back in Windows 8 February 8th, 2013
There are a number of utilities, some free and some not, that attempt to make the Windows 8 Desktop mode look and function more like Windows 7 by adding a “Start” button back in the Task Bar.----->
On January 21st of this year (2013) I celebrated my 50th year in computing, so I think it’s fair to say I’ve see a lot of changes. (Completed article available on or before Jan 27th.)
Without being specific in general there have been a lot of superior computers, software and other inventions but it’s not always the best idea that wins but the company with the best marketing of their product. So many good products have come and gone I’ve lost count. So here is a brief timeline ----- >
Windows 9 Korner
Windows 9 - Early feedback January 16th, 2013. I want Windows to survive and grow but marketing needs to be in charge this time around ----->
Windows 9 – First Thoughts
October 5th
What you say, Windows 9 when Windows 8 hasn’t even been released ----->
“That PC business is shrinking fast. On Monday, Gartner, a market analysis firm, stated that for all of 2012 Dell sold 37.6. million PCs worldwide, a 12.3 percent drop from its 2011 shipments. It was the worst performance, in a weak market, of any major manufacturer. Dell’s drop was particularly severe in both the United States and in the fourth quarter, indicating that its erosion is accelerating. Hewlett Packard, the world’s top PC maker, shipped 6.7 percent fewer PCs in 2012, but was only modestly lower in the fourth quarter, and increased its share in the United States, Gartner said.”
“PCs, until recently the primary way people worked with computers and got on the Internet, are facing increasing competition from tablets and smartphones. The launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system in October, which PC makers hoped would revitalize their business, may have made things worse . Customers seem not to like Microsoft’s design and touch screen innovations.”
More interesting is does or did Microsoft ever copyright the Windows “Start” button? There are about 10 companies or organizations providing a start button add on for Windows 8. If Microsoft should decide to make the start button back in their next release of Windows could they be facing a lawsuit? Could the EU now force Microsoft to create a Window "NS" (No Start button)?
"Windows 7 gained 0.51 percentage points (from 42.21 percent to 42.72 percent). Windows Vista meanwhile slipped 0.45 percentage points (from 6.60 percent to 6.15 percent) and Windows XP fell 0.34 percentage points (from 42.86 percent to 42.52 percent)."
How to move Windows 7 from a larger Hard Drive to a smaller SSD drive using Norton Ghost version 15.
September 24th, 2012
For this article I will move Windows 7 Professional 64Bit from a 500GB hard drive to a Samsung 830 series SSD 128GB using Norton Ghost 15 (Full Product). Ghost includes the ability of creating Image Backups of your existing drive and a means of copying a hard drive to the SSD unit, however copying is not supported in the trial version of Ghost. This is not a problem as I purchased a Samsung 830 series (Desktop Edition) Solid State Drive which includes a Ghost CD, and separate Samsung CD with anice set of utilities (Magician). ----->
How to move Windows 7 from a larger Hard Drive to a smaller SSD drive using Acronis True Image. ----->
May 1st, 2012
For this article I will move Windows 7 Home Premium 32Bit from a 500GB hard drive to a 32GB SSD drive using Acronis True Image Home 2012 (trial version) image backups. Acronis includes a means of cloning the hard drive to the SSD unit, but unfortunately cloning is not supported in the