News

• Falling PC Prices Pit Microsoft Against PC Makers

  Last week, research firm Gartner released a PC sales forecast that initially sounded like good news for Microsoft and its hardware partners, but likely indicates trouble ahead.

• Windows Black Screen of Death: What you need to know

  Any Windows owner is familiar with the Blue Screen of Death, that much-dreaded white text on a blue background that essentially says you're through. But what you may not know is that there's a new contender in town: The Black Screen of Death. So what is this horrible-sounding thing, where did it come from, what's being done to fix it, and how bad is it? Here are five things you need to know about the Black Screen of Death.

• Windows 7 passes Mac OS X in market share race

  Windows 7 passed the 5 per cent market share milestone last weekend, which put it, if only temporarily, above the total market share of all versions of Apple's Mac OS X, a Web measurement firm said today.

• Microsoft issues security advisory on IE vulnerability

  Microsoft Monday night issued a security advisory that provides customers with guidance and workarounds for dealing with a zero-day exploit aimed at Internet Explorer.

• Ruby shining on Java, Windows, and Mac OS

  Ruby, the popular open source dynamic language, is making headway not only on Java but also on the Windows and Mac platforms.

• Microsoft Windows chief decries standards grandstanding

  Los Angeles – Microsoft will be compliant with industry standards in Internet Explorer 9 such as HTML 5, but Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division, decried the habit of vendors getting ahead of the process.

• Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe?

  Windows 7 users got a nice surprise on Tuesday when Microsoft released its first set of security patches since unveiling the new operating system last month. Of the 15 bugs patched, none affected Windows 7.

• Microsoft links malware rates to pirated Windows

  Microsoft today said computers in countries with high rates of software piracy are more likely to be infected by malicious code because users are leery of applying security patches.

• Apple and Linux forces rain on Windows 7 parade

  Apple and Linux advocate IBM both tried hard to cramp Microsoft's style this week before the Windows 7 rollout even got under way. On Tuesday, Apple launched a new iMac, MacBook, and Mac Mini line, while IBM joined with Linux distributor Canonical to introduce a new "cloud-and-Linux-based" offering called IBM Client for Smart Work.

• How to Upgrade From XP to Windows 7

  You had good reason to stick with XP and skip the Vista experience entirely. But now that the folks at Microsoft have created a new operating system that's worth moving to, they haven't made the upgrade easy, because you have to perform a clean install of the OS. Here are the issues you need to be aware of, and how to handle them. Then read the main article, "How to Upgrade to Windows 7" for more information on the process.

• Windows 7: Upgrade Checklist

  Confirm that you have all of the following at hand before you start the upgrade.

• 3 Key Tweaks for Windows 7

  As an environment to work and play in, Windows 7 beats Vista, hands down. But it isn't perfect, and you may find yourself missing a few features that have disappeared. Here's how to get them back.

• Ballmer: Windows 7 worth the investment

  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer put on his sales hat Tuesday and made a case for why businesses should upgrade to Windows 7, despite an economy in which many IT budgets have been frozen or are lower than in years past.

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  Intel ports Linux netbook OS to desktops

  Intel has expanded the scope of Linux-based Moblin by porting the OS from netbooks to mobile devices and desktops, where it could compete with Microsoft's Windows OS.

• Chrome buries Windows rivals in browser drag race

  Google's new Chrome 3.0 is the fastest of the top five Windows browsers, and beats every rival, including Apple's Safari, by comfortable margins, benchmark tests show.