One of the first things I wanted to check out was how Mozilla had worked around Microsoft disabling the default browser API. I downloaded and installed Firefox 40 Beta on the freshly upgraded Windows 10 machine and upon first run I was asked if I wanted to make Firefox my default browser (Chrome was currently default and then I had switched it to Edge later for testing purposes). Firefox detected it was NOT the default browser Once you click the Use Firefox as my default browser button the Windows 10 Settings > System > Default Apps screen opens which is a…
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For those people who reserved an upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10, it could already be downloading. What, you were expecting Microsoft to ask you if it was okay to eat up your bandwidth with a nearly 6 GB download? Nope, just like the Windows 10 Updates, Windows 10 upgrade is going to be automatically downloaded. To see if your computer is secretly downloading Windows 10 check Windows Explorer for a folder called C:\$windows.~BT note: this is hidden folder so you may need to go into File Explorer and go to: Organize > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files, folders, and…
Windows 10 hasn’t even been released to the general public yet and there is already a major problem. The cause of this problem was Windows 10 insisting that EVERY update is mandatory, including device drivers (which were optional in Windows 7 and Windows 8). In this case it users of dual monitors with certain Nvidia graphic cards. The flaw revolves around Nvidia graphics cards with users taking to Nvidia’s forums to report Windows Update is automatically installing new drivers which break multimonitor setups, SLI (dual card) configurations and can even stop PCs booting entirely which pushes Windows 10 into its emergency…
Less than two weeks away now from Windows 10 release and new details keep trickling in. A major detail that recently has been revealed is the way Windows 10 handles default browser. Even before I get into that, it is important to know that when you upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft’s Edge browser becomes your default browser. Okay, so just go into the browser you normally use and choose the option to make it default browser, right? Wrong! Microsoft has taken away the API functionality of a browser to make itself the default browser in Windows 10. Windows 10 does not allow a browser…
As mentioned in the prior article, there is something about the Windows 10 Free Upgrade that Microsoft is not being very clear about which could have a very negative effect on the PC Market. Microsoft has claimed over and over ‘Windows 10 owners can expect to get free updates for the “supported lifetime of the device”.’ Okay, so as long as the device is working I can get free updates, right? Not exactly, the key term in Microsoft’s statement is supported lifetime of the device. Some sources indicate that this device lifetime is going to be 2 or 4 years depending on…
News came out the end of last week, that for the second straight quarter PC Sales have declined and this is the biggest decline in the last two years. One of the factors was an unusually big push in PC sales last year because of Microsoft phasing out Windows XP. The Windows 10 release is just around the corner and that may end up further hurting the PC market. Consumers won’t need to rush out and and buy a new PC simply to get Windows 10. Microsoft offering a free upgrade during the first 12-months of Windows 10 release to those who have…
In December 2012 I bought an Asus Nexus 7 tablet. This was the 2012 Wi-Fi only model as they did come out with a cellular version later on in 2013. I had used the tablet for school, community service project as well as for looking up information at home from the comfort of my couch. Everything was going great, that was until Google pushed out Lollipop (Android 5.x) late in 2014 and my tablet became a very expensive paperweight. It was sluggish and would freeze randomly. Oddly enough, it worked fairly well when I was using it as in car…
Claus at grand stream dreams, linked in his recent Anti Virus Software Updates blog posts an interesting article about issues Windows users were having with high CPU load. The culprit as it turns out was an optional (though installed by default) of avast! antivirus (both free and premium versions) called avast NG. The article (which has been Google Translated from another language) includes step-by-step instructions on how to uninstall the unwanted components (warning: restart required to complete the removal) as well as screenshots (in a another language). On my three systems (generic Windows 7 Desktop, HP Windows 7 Laptop and Gateway Windows 8.1),…
Some months ago I resurrected a Windows 7 Ultimate computer I had retired a couple years ago after it threw one too many (and consecutive) BSODs. I suspected that all my problems likely stemmed from trying to ‘upgrade’ it from Windows Vista to Windows 7 when I really should have just bought an OEM version of Windows 7. Doing a clean install of Windows 7 Pro seemed to fix all my problems. This was back in April and I got busy with work and other projects. Plus, at that time I really didn’t have a place to keep it setup in my home…
No, the title is not a typo. Microsoft has announced today they are skipping over Windows 9 and going directly to Windows 10. Originally codenamed Windows Threshold, the new operating system essentially does away with the tiled “Metro” user interface that Microsoft had attempted to implement across its entire device line, from desktop PCs to Surface tablets and Widows Phone devices. It is such a substantial leap, according to Microsoft’s executive VP of operating systems, Terry Myerson, that the company decided it would be best to skip over Windows 9, the widely expected name for the next version. So it…