Windows
Microsoft is betting big on artificial intelligence and generative AI at all levels of the company, from servers and Azure down to individual Windows PCs. And that big bet is about to become a lot more visible on Windows machines in the future, as Microsoft has instructed Windows OEMs to change their keyboard layouts to include a dedicated key for their Copilot AI service. Replacing the Menu key (or equivalent) on Windows 11 laptop keyboards, the repurposed key will instead provide direct access to Copilot, launching Microsoft's hub application for on-system AI. The Copilot key's primary function is to activate the Copilot generative AI assistant in Windows 11, provided that it the system has Copilot installed and logged in to a Microsoft account. Otherwise, on...
Flash Player 11 in Early October, Says Adobe
Flash Player 11, the next major version of Adobe's near-ubiquitous browser plug-in, is now officially set for release in early October, the company said in a press release today...
31 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/21/2011Microsoft Details Revamped Windows 8 Boot and Diagnostic Menus
In the latest Building Windows 8 blog post, Microsoft's Billie Sue Chafins details some of the improvements and changes made to Windows' boot and diagnostic screens to make them...
8 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/21/2011Windows 8 Malware Protection Detailed
Every new version of Windows has done something to help alleviate the platform's chronic malware problem, and Windows 8 will be no different: Microsoft's Jason Garms takes to the...
13 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/15/2011Metro Internet Explorer 10 to be Plug-in Free
When using the browser's Metro interface, Internet Explorer 10 will be completely plug-in free, says Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch on the Building Windows 8 blog. The new browser will depend...
15 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/15/2011A look at Windows 8 Tablets running on TI, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and Intel silicon
This afternoon (and yesterday) we had a chance to meet with a number of SoC vendors who have partnered with Microsoft for Windows 8. Each of them has their...
94 by Brian Klug on 9/14/2011Microsoft BUILD: Windows 8, A Pre-Beta Preview
We’re here in Anaheim, California at Microsoft’s BUILD conference. As has become tradition Microsoft has been holding major developer conferences for their new OSes roughly a year ahead of...
236 by Brian Klug & Ryan Smith on 9/13/2011Windows 8 Features Vastly Improved Boot Times
Windows 8 news continues to trickle from the Building Windows 8 blog at a steady clip: today, Gabe Aul detailed changes to the Windows 8 boot process that promise...
52 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/9/2011Microsoft Integrating Hyper-V Into Windows 8 Client
Microsoft is beefing up virtualization support in Windows 8 with Hyper-V, writes Microsoft's Mathew John on the Building Windows 8 blog. Hyper-V was previously available in Windows Server 2008...
9 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/7/2011Microsoft Explains Relationship Between Windows 8 User Interfaces
Today's Building Windows 8 blog post, written by Steven Sinofsky, isn't really about a new Windows 8 feature or tweak, but rather about how the new-style Metro tablet UI...
21 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/31/2011Windows 8 Improves Native Support for ISO, VHD Files
Today's Building Windows 8 blog post is from Rajeev Nagar, and describes how Windows 8 can natively mount and work with files stored in ISO and VHD files. For those...
16 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/30/2011Windows Explorer Gets Ribbon Interface in Windows 8
The Windows 8 details continue: Today on the Building Windows 8 blog, Alex Simons takes us through some changes to the Windows Explorer, chief among them the fact that...
45 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/29/2011Windows 8 Aims to Improve File Copy Operations
The trickle of Windows 8 news continues ahead of next month's BUILD conference: today on the Building Windows 8 Blog, Microsoft's Alex Simons detailed several improvements to the way...
39 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/24/2011Native USB 3.0 Support Coming to Windows 8
Windows 8 will be bringing with it native support for USB 3.0 controllers, writes Microsoft's Dennis Flanagan, Director of Program Management for the Devices and Networking Group. This is...
19 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/22/2011Microsoft Opens Windows 8 Development Blog
It seems like not all that long ago we were talking about the launch of Windows 7, but 2012 is right around the corner, and it's bringing Windows 8...
16 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/15/2011OS X Lion Server's Directory Service Can't Host Windows Clients
As we mentioned in our review of Mac OS X Lion, Apple either chose to or was forced to make changes to how the SMB file sharing protocol was...
6 by Andrew Cunningham on 8/2/2011MSI Announces WindPad 110W With New AMD Z-01
The tablet market is expanding every bit as rapidly as netbooks did when they first arrived, and then some. MSI has announced their entry into the market today, and...
37 by Dustin Sklavos on 7/7/2011Windows Thin PC: Windows, Slimmed Down
Last month, Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview (CTP, in essence a public beta) of something called Windows Thin PC. This business-oriented operating system’s given purpose is both to...
47 by Andrew Cunningham on 4/28/2011Windows Home Server v2 'Vail': Drive Extender v2 Dismissed
Back in April we dissected Drive Extender v2 – Microsoft’s storage pool and data duplication technology for Windows Home Server – based upon the first preview release of Windows...
45 by Ryan Smith on 11/24/2010Apple MacBook Pro 13: Can a Mac Be a Decent Windows Laptop?
Apple fans, please forgive me, and feel free to skip this post. I have been testing out a MacBook Pro 13 running Windows 7 and have put it through...
118 by Vivek Gowri on 10/14/2010Windows Home Server v2 'Vail' Beta: Drive Extender v2 Dissected
Yesterday Microsoft released the first public beta of the next version of Windows Home Server, currently going under the codename of Vail (or as we like to call it...
52 by Ryan Smith on 4/27/2010