FUTURE PROCESSORS WILL NOT SUPPORT OLDER VERSIONS OF WINDOWS

Enterprise customers are notorious for hanging on to legacy operating systems for the sake of compatibility; however, it looks like Microsoft is about the change the deal. Redmond has announced that it will no longer support older versions of Windows on future computer processors.

The announcement clarifies that the change will take effect with the arrival of the next generation of processors from the three major manufacturers; namely AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. When this happens, enterprise users will begin losing support for all versions of Windows that aren’t Windows 10. From then on, the newest processors will always require the most current generation Windows operating system for support.

To ease the transition, Microsoft is creating a list of Intel Skylake processors that will continue to support Windows 7 and 8.1, but the programme will only last until 17 July 2017. Essentially, businesses are being given an 18 month period to upgrade their systems for the impeding change.

Older versions of Windows require additional work from manufacturers to maintain compatibility with newer features. Some features on new hardware are also quietly dropped, since making them function with older operating systems would prove too costly. For instance, Windows 7 has no native support for USB 3.0; and making it work would require additional drivers.

Industry analyst Patrick Moorhead speculates that there is more to the announcement from Microsoft. Essentially, he believes that Redmond is simply taking the blame for a decision made by the entire industry. Supporting legacy software is extremely costly, and it has been suggested that a full third of manufacturers’ resources go into supporting older software.

The new policy is also likely to get enterprise customers to upgrade to the latest version of Windows; something that they have proven extremely resistant to doing. Microsoft on the other hand, would love it if everyone played along with its plan and consistently upgraded to the latest version of Windows; and this pushes everyone in the right direction.

[Source: Windows Blog; via Ars Technica]

Windows 10 inches up slightly in desktop OS market

Windows 10 continued to grab a larger audience in September, though it seems to have lost some steam.



The latest version of Windows snagged a 6.6 percent cut of all Web traffic generated by desktop operating systems last month, according to NetMarketShare, less than 1.5 points higher than the 5.21 percent seen in August. Windows 10 had been available as a technical preview since October 2014 and as such barely registered in NetMarketShare's data until it rolled out as a free upgrade starting July 29.

Windows 10 success is critical to Microsoft. The company dropped the ball three years ago with Windows 8, which failed to win the hearts and minds of many desktop users. To bring back interest, Microsoft revamped its new OS by reviving the Start menu, making the interface more keyboard and mouse friendly and adding its Cortana voice assistant. But the major lure has been to make Windows 10 a free upgrade for the first year to anyone running Windows 7 or 8.1. After that, Windows 10 jumps to its full price of $119 for the Home edition and $199 for the Pro version. So Microsoft needs to see strong growth in adoption during these first 12 months.

The data from NetMarketShare for August appeared to show that people were taking advantage of the free upgrade offer in droves. But the number for September showed growth in demand rising only slightly. It's hard to say if the small gain is the start of a trend following a quick start out of the gate or simply a blip for the month of September.

Indeed, other versions of Windows showed little movement last month.

In first place, Windows 7's share actually fell to 56.5 percent from 57.6 percent in August. In second place, Windows XP was relatively flat, with its cut nudging up to 12.2 percent from 12.1 percent. In third place, Windows 8.1 declined to 10.7 percent from 11.3 percent. And Windows 8 was also flat with a share of 2.6 percent.

Based on NetMarketShare's data, September seemed like a month in which a lot of people simply stayed put with their current version of Windows. That could be due to the season, as September is the month in which kids go back to school and people return to work from vacations, so they may have more on their plates than jumping to a new version of Windows. Numbers for September 2014 also showed just minor changes in Web traffic from the prior month for the different flavors of Windows.

Overall, Windows 10 is off to a good start compared with its predecessor. Adoption of the new OS is already far outshining that of Windows 8 over a similar time frame. After Windows 8 officially launched on October 27, 2012, it took home just a 1 percent share of Web traffic in November and just 1.7 percent in December, according to NetMarketShare. It didn't surpass 6 percent until the following August when it scored a 7.4 percent share.

In 2015, iPhone sales may finally overtake Windows PC sales

Over the past few years, PC sales have been on a steady decline. Considering the universal popularity of the smartphone, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but over at Asymco, Horace Dediu has put together some fascinating projections that you might not have expected to see in 2015.

According to Dediu’s forecast, Apple will ship more iOS and OS X devices in 2015 than all Windows computers combined. In fact, the iPhone alone could overtake PC sales by the end of the year.

“Data from Gartner shows Windows PCs declining at a 6% rate in Q1 with a full-year forecast of -2.4% (including OS X),” writes Dediu. “Assuming 20.7 million Macs, the Windows PC market will decline to 285.6 million units (from 295 million in 2014). My estimate is that iOS and OS X combined shipments will total about 302 million.”

Again, this isn’t exactly a shocking development, but it’s one that many casual observers probably didn’t expect to see so soon. Then again, if the launch of Windows 10 later this year can surpass all expectations, Microsoft may be able to stem the tide temporarily.

Here’s Dediu’s graph charting the history of the personal computer market from 1981 through to this year:

Windows XP clings to No. 2 spot as Windows 10 gets closer

Windows XP continues its descent among desktop operating systems, though it's far from dead and buried.

Looking at the overall Web traffic for desktop operating systems across the globe, Net Applications gave XP a 16.9 percent share for the month of March, a hefty drop from the 19.1 percent recorded in February.

Though XP's grip on the market continues to loosen, it remains the No. 2 most-used operating system based on Net Application's Web stats, beating Windows 8 and 8.1 and their collective share of 14 percent. Windows 8.1 took the third spot with a 10.5 percent share, leaving Windows 8 in fifth place with just 3.5 percent.

Windows 7 holds the top spot, with a share of 58 percent.

The enduring hold of the 13-year-old Windows XP on PC users underscores the challenges Microsoft has faced as it tries to move ahead with new versions of its flagship operating system, which the company says has more than 1.5 billion users around the world. The staying power has even proven resistant to Microsoft's end of support for XP a year ago, which put an end to bug fixes and and other patches, leaving users more vulnerable to security threats.

There are ripple effects as well. Last month, chipmaker Intel slashed nearly $1 billion off its quarterly revenue outlook, in large part because small and midsize businesses have been reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP -- a popular but now 13-year-old operating system. PC makers, such as Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Acer, would also feel a pinch from slower refreshes from Windows XP.

The next leap forward comes this summer when Microsoft plans to release Windows 10, which among other things aims to avoid the missteps of Windows 8 and to provide a consistent software experience across devices including desktops, laptops, smartphones and even Internet of Things gear including ATMs and ultrasound machines.

With Windows 10 arriving soon, what choices are available to those who want to upgrade?

For users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, Microsoft is offering free upgrades to Windows 10 for the first year. That means you can download and install Windows 10 for free and directly upgrade your existing PC. But users still running Windows XP or Vista won't be able to ugprade their PCs directly to Windows 10, according to Microsoft. That leaves them the choice of upgrading to Windows 8.1 and then to Windows 10 or simply buying a new PC this summer already equipped with Windows 10.

Currently available as a technical preview, Windows 10 has been showing up as a blip on Net Applications' radar. For March, the new OS took home a share of just under 0.1 percent.

WINDOWS 10 CAN FREE UP TO 15GB OF STORAGE SPACE

Microsoft’s upcoming operating system, Windows 10, will boast several impressive storage-saving techniques. Depending on your PC, Windows 10 can free up to 15GB of storage space. This is accomplished with a better compression method and a redesigned refresh and reset functionality.

According to Microsoft, Windows 10 uses an “efficient compression algorithm to compress system files,” which can save 1.5GB to 2.6GB of storage space depending on your system. The company also mentioned that this compression will also be available on smartphones running on Windows 10.

The redesigned refresh and reset functionality is where the most storage space is freed. Usually, if users would like to restore their system back to a pristine state, a separate recovery image needs to be stored in the system – which is the case with previous iterations of the Windows operating system. This requirement is now removed in Windows 10, which can free up anywhere between 4GB to 12GB of storage space.

When both of these space-saving techniques are taken into consideration, devices running on Windows 10 can potentially have 15GB of extra storage space. However, as phones already have a storage-optimised recovery solution which do not have a recovery image to start with, they will not benefit as much from these.

If you would like to learn more about both of these features, you can read about it here. Windows 10 will be launching this summer in 190 countries.

(Source: Windows Blog via The Verge)

MICROSOFT TO ALLOW PIRATED WINDOWS USERS UPGRADE TO GENUINE WINDOWS 10 FOR FREE

Piracy has always been the enemy to genuine software and we are pretty sure Microsoft has extensive experience dealing with counterfeit software being the largest software company in the world. However, the company has decided to take an extremely different approach for the upcoming release of Windows 10 in China later this year: by offering free upgrade to pirated Windows users.

This rather interesting information was announced by Terry Myerson, the Executive Vice President of Operating Systems for Microsoft in an interview with Reuters. That being said, Myerson did mentioned that the upgrade will be provided to qualified PCs but didn’t provide detailed clarifications on that matter.

Of course, it goes without saying that users with genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will receive free upgrade to Windows 10 as well within the first year of its release as per what Microsoft has announced in January 2015. Still, we are wondering though if there is any hidden agenda behind this move by Microsoft in China.

At this moment, it is not known whether Microsoft will provide similar offer to markets outside of China or otherwise. It will be interesting to how the market will coupe or change to such move, if Microsoft is willing to deliver similar offer in other countries.

[Source: Reuters and Windows Official Blog. Image: Microsoft China @ Weibo]

WINDOWS 10 TO BE AVAILABLE THIS SUMMER IN 190 COUNTRIES

Moments ago, Microsoft has just revealed that Windows 10 will be shipped to 190 countries throughout the world this coming summer. That means we’ll be seeing the new operating system sometime between June and August this year.

In addition to that, Windows 10 will be made available in 111 languages in order to suit these markets. However, Microsoft didn’t actually specify actual release date for each of those 190 countries and no pricing was mentioned as well.

That being said, Microsoft has reconfirmed that existing Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 8.1 users will able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free within the first year after the new operating system is release into the market. As mentioned back in January, the operating system will continue to be updated without any additional cost for the supported lifetime of the device once it is upgraded to Windows 10.

All in all, this means that we will not only see a new Windows operating system at the end of Q2 or beginning of Q3 this year but plenty of new devices as well. For those who are in the market for new Windows PC, laptops, or tablet at this moment, the upgradability to Windows 10 is something that you might want to consider as well.

[Source: Windows Official Blog]