And so the smartphonification of the general purpose computer continues. This time around, though, it might actually be for the better. Microsoft has detailed two new features in Windows 8: refreshing and resetting your computer. Reinstalls will be a thing of the past.
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Member since:2010-03-08
In their default configuration, Windows Vista and up are set up to run defrag automatically in the background as a scheduled task : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/01/25/disk-defragmentation-...
Edited 2012-01-07 16:12 UTC
Member since:2007-11-11
I too have a ton of games on my Win 7 which has been running since Oct 09 (have replaced just about every part but the HDDs and only needed a single reactivation when i switched boards) and counting Steam games you're looking at over 100Gb of games and the highest i've had it fragment was 4%, big whoop. And I just checked tuneup and while it has been cleaning out some dead reg entries where I beat games and tossed them it hasn't needed to defrag yet so I'd say Windows has the frag problem licked pretty much.
Of course the sad part to me is how many won't believe it, same as i quit hanging around any sites where Linux users may congregate because i got tired of hearing "Windows constantly BSODs ZOMG!" like its still 1993. That would be like saying Linux doesn't have anything but a kernel since Torvalds only recently put it up on IRQ!
So lets resolve to bury some of the old FUD in 2012, kay? windows doesn't BSOD daily, you don't run as an admin, it doesn't get infected by turning it on , you don't have to hunt for driver discs (Windows Update now takes care of drivers) and it doesn't take a supercomputer to run win 7, in fact my oldest is running it quite well on a 6 year old Pentium D with 1.5Gb of RAM.
Member since:2010-03-08
As replied to the previous post, you can consider that Windows Vista and up have got fragmentation sorted out if and only if you are ready to ignore the thought that it keeps running defrag in the background every week, needlessly eating up power and cutting on your fragile HDD's lifetime in order to compensate for its terrible everyday file management performance.
Edited 2012-01-09 06:03 UTC
Member since:2011-01-28
bassbeast,
"you don't have to hunt for driver discs (Windows Update now takes care of drivers)"
I wouldn't have responded to any of your other claims, but here I beg to differ. Windows 7 driver installations can still be particularly problematic before web access is available. Of course the problem is generally only witnessed by people who build their own windows systems and don't use the OEM recovery partition to install windows.
In all honestly I find that linux wired ethernet compatibility out of the box to be undeniably superior to any version of windows. Wireless on the other hand is a different story, I've spent numerous hours cursing linux distros for WLAN problems that the windows drivers don't share.
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2006-02-15
I have been using Windows 7 for over a year now, without reinstallations and I actually tried running defrag a few weeks ago out of curiosity. Well, I had 1% fragmentation, no need to run it, even though I've been installing loads of games and applications and whatnot throughout the year.
As such I do not believe that either applies to current Windows.