Windows Archive

Microsoft has lost about $1.7 billion on Surface so far

Thom Holwerda 2014-08-07 Windows 78 Comments

Microsoft continued to lose money on its Surface tablets throughout its just-concluded 2014 fiscal year, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in red ink and boosting total losses to $1.7 billion since the device's 2012 launch.

It doesn't look like Surface has really been working out for Microsoft. I think the hardware's pretty great, the software is well below par (as a tablet!), but yet, people aren't buying them. Combined with Windows Phone's and Nokia's inability to make any form of profit, it looks like Microsoft's 'devices' focus has been a pretty big failure. At the glacial pace with which Lumia sales are growing, it might take the company several years before turning a profit and recouping all the investments made (e.g. Nokia acquisition).

Windows Threshold: here come the virtual desktops

Thom Holwerda 2014-08-05 Windows 65 Comments

Microsoft is considering bringing virtual desktops to Windows Threshold. The feature, which is already on other platforms like Ubuntu and OS X is currently being tested and is said to have similar functionality to that of Ubuntu. You can activate the desktops with a button on the taskbar (subject to change) and there are keyboard shortcuts that let you jump between active desktops.

Of course, this should have been done eons ago, but the fact they're considering it now is great news. Let's hope it's true.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 rolling out to developer Lumias

Thom Holwerda 2014-08-04 Windows 26 Comments

As promised, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 is rolling out to Lumia phones with Developer Preview enabled.

The biggest feature is Live Folders, which allows users to dynamically create folders on the Start screen. Other new features include the Apps Corner, SMS merge and forwarding and much more. It should also add Cortana support for the UK and China, and India, Australia, and Canada residents can check out the US version of Cortana officially for the first time.

The update is not rolling out for owners of non-Lumia devices - HTC 8X and 8S owners, for instance, are not getting the update. There's no word from Microsoft yet as to why Lumia devices are getting the preferential treatment.

Microsoft reveals Update 1 for Windows Phone 8.1

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-30 Windows 17 Comments

As expected, Microsoft is finally revealing all there is about Update 1 for Windows Phone 8.1. Known internally as GDR1 for 'general distribution release,' this update is one of two for the 8.1 operating system in 2014. The news comes out of Beijing, China where Microsoft's Joe Belfiore announced the release during his keynote, in addition to the expansion of Cortana to the UK and China.

Coming next week for Preview for Developers. If Microsoft can keep this pace of updates up, they've got something very good going. A very welcome contrast to the slow and monolithic approach the company took in the first few years of Windows Phone's existence.

Folders, new resolutions coming to WP 8.1 Update 1

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-27 Windows 19 Comments

Microsoft has accidentally spilled the beans on Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, and it's going to be a relatively small update for users, but a big one for OEMs and thus the platform. The number of user-facing features is small (Windows Phone is finally getting folder support!), but it increases support for different resolutions and screen sizes - up to 7".

More features might be coming that aren't yet leaked, but the focus of the update is clear: hardware support.

And then there were three

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-25 Windows 33 Comments

I'm lucky. My financial situation allows me to buy several phones and tablets every year to keep up with the goings-on of all the major - and some of the minor - platforms currently competing for prime real estate in your precious pockets. It also means that I am lucky from a psychological point of view - by being able to buy several devices every year, I never fall into the all-too-common trap of choice-supportive bias. I don't have to rationalise my device purchases after the fact, so I won't have to employ all sorts of mental gymnastics to solve any states of cognitive dissonance caused by hardware and software flaws - the number one cause of irrational fanboyism.

And so, I try to rotate my phone of choice around as much as possible. I enjoy jumping from Android to my N9, then onwards to Sailfish, back to Android, and then have some fun with Symbian on my E7 - and beyond. I've got a long list of platforms I want to add to the collection - one white BlackBerry Passport please - but in general, I'm pretty well-rounded.

The bottomless money pit that is Windows Phone

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-23 Windows 103 Comments

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed that his company will amalgamate all major versions of Windows into one operating system. Speaking on the company's quarterly earnings call today, Nadella told analysts Microsoft will "streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system." Describing the implications of the change, Nadella said "this means one operating system that covers all screen sizes."

Not exactly news, but it's good to have it explicitly out in the open like this. And if they're going to want to keep focusing on consumers, they're going to need some pretty big changes. They sold fewer than half a million Surface devices in the last quarter, and only 5.8 million Lumia devices. That last figure is misleading, though, as it only covers two months due to the Nokia deal. Even adding another month, it's safe to say it's well below 10 million.

This actually raises an interesting question: has Microsoft actually ever made any profit off Windows Phone? Especially taking into account the huge amount of money they had to pour into Nokia's devices division every quarter just to keep it alive? And now they also need to earn the costs of the acquisition back.

At some point, someone is going to have to make the tough calls here. What is the future of Windows Phone - and how long will that future be? How long will Microsoft be able to pour resources into the bottomless money pit that is Windows Phone?

Lenovo stops selling small Windows tablets due to lack of demand

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-18 Windows 19 Comments

Lenovo has stopped selling Windows tablets with screen sizes under 10 inches in the U.S. due to lack of interest.

Lenovo has stopped selling two small-screen Windows tablets with 8-inch screens: the ThinkPad 8, which was announced in January and a model of Miix 2, which started shipping in October last year.

This is not a quip, but an honest question: is the size qualifier here really necessary? I.e., do Windows tablets sell in any meaningful number at all, regardless of size? Windows laptops and desktops surely still sell well, but Windows tablets?

Like smartphones, I'm pretty sure this market is dominated by iOS and Android, and Lenovo throwing the towel in the ring here doesn't bode well for any possible third ecosystems - and that sucks.

Windows Phone 8.1 released for Lumia devices

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-15 Windows 28 Comments

Starting today, the Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphone family will receive the Lumia Cyan software, the new Windows Phone 8.1 update and Lumia features upgrade that will make your Lumia an even more personal, fun and indispensable part of your life.

Windows Phone 8.1 is a must-have - those of us who have been running the developer preview thing know that quite well. The update will come to Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices over the coming weeks in Microsoft's usual staggered rollout. I haven't seen any information yet regarding non-Microsoft Windows Phone devices.

Microsoft removes Google Search from new Lumias

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-15 Windows 34 Comments

Microsoft has disabled an option to set Google as the default search engine on its latest Lumia Windows Phones. The option is currently supported on the majority of Nokia's Lumia devices, thanks to an advanced setting in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 8.0. Microsoft acquired Nokia’s phone business in April, and the company's first handsets, the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930, are shipping without the option on Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft has never allowed Windows Phone users to alter the physical search button behavior, which defaults to Bing, but Internet Explorer users could enable the setting to use the address bar to search within Google instead of manually navigating to the search engine or using the Bing default.

Oh my god Microsoft give it up already.

Windows ‘Threshold’: no more Metro for desktop users

Thom Holwerda 2014-07-01 Windows 59 Comments

There's a lot of information coming out about the future versions of Windows - and it's looking like Microsoft is listening to its users. First and foremost, it seems like the Metro interface will be disabled completely when Windows runs on traditional laptops and desktops; however, Metro applications will still run in windows on the desktop.

The Desktop/laptop SKU of Threshold will include, as previously rumored, the Mini-Start menu - a new version of the traditional Microsoft Start menu, an early concept of which Microsoft showed off at the company's Build developers conference in April. It also will include the ability to run Metro-Style/Windows Store apps in windows on the Desktop. Will it turn off completely the Metro-Style Start screen with its live-tile interface, as Neowin is reporting, and make the tiled Start Menu a toggleable option from the Mini Start menu? I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Meanwhile, convertible devices will work pretty much like Windows 8.x does today, switching between the two modes. Microsoft will also do the inevitable: merge its phone and tablet operating system into one product.

The combined Phone/Tablet SKU of Threshold won't have a Desktop environment at all, but still will support apps running side by side, my sources are reconfirming. This "Threshold Mobile" SKU will work on ARM-based Windows Phones (not just Lumias), ARM-based Windows tablets and, I believe, Intel-Atom-based tablets.

These are all looking like some very decent changes, and something they should have done from the get-go. In fact - they should have never tried to shove Metro down desktop user's throats to begin with. They should have moved Windows Phone over to NT (which they did anyway), and scale that up to tablets.

I am, though, quite interested in what the Metro-on-desktop apologists are going to say now. For entertainment value, of course!

How to continue getting free security updates for Windows XP

Thom Holwerda 2014-05-31 Windows 53 Comments

Microsoft has stopped providing XP users with security updates, forcing them to either upgrade to another, newer operating system, or gamble with their safety. While the latest usage figures show that a large portion of users are moving away from XP, there's still a sizable number of users who aren't - or can't.

If you're an XP user, or know some XP users, there's a trick which makes it possible to receive security updates for the aging OS for another five years - right up until April 2019.

I have a better solution. No registry hacks required!

New Windows 8.1 SKU: Windows 8.1 with Bing

Thom Holwerda 2014-05-23 Windows 23 Comments

As we move forward, many of these lower cost devices will come with a new edition of Windows called Windows 8.1 with Bing. Windows 8.1 with Bing provides all the same great experiences that Windows 8.1 offers with the Windows 8.1 Update, and comes with Bing as the default search engine within Internet Explorer. And of course customers will be able to change that setting through the Internet Explorer menu, providing them with control over search engine settings. This new edition will be only be available preloaded on devices from our hardware partners. Some of these devices, in particular tablets, will also come with Office or a one-year subscription to Office 365.

Windows 8.1 with Bing is exactly the same as every other Windows 8.1 SKU - except for the fact that OEMs cannot change the default search engine - users still can, though. The price for OEMs will be lower, which makes me wonder why on earth OEMs would go for the other SKUs.

The inevitable arrival of subscription-based Windows

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-24 Windows 39 Comments

Peter Bright making the case for subscription-based Windows.

Microsoft has already made Windows free to OEMs for tablets with screens below a certain size. Making it free to everyone but without the desktop would be a logical extension of this. It gives Microsoft the tools to compete with both Android on tablets and Chrome OS on laptops, while still not cutting it out of the revenue loop entirely. Desktop-less Windows should provide Microsoft with some amount of revenue through applications bought in the Store.

To this, add a couple of levels of unlocks: one tier for regular Windows desktop features (offering parity with the feature set of Windows 8.1 today), and a second, higher tier for Windows corporate features (offering parity with Windows 8.1 Pro). These could be both persistent unlocks or periodic subscriptions. Microsoft has already had persistent operating system unlocks since Windows Vista's Anytime Upgrade feature, so none of this would be hugely different from what's gone before.

The facts and rumours do line up, but honestly - free/subscription-based Windows is right up there with a TV from Apple when it comes to long-running, always-returning but never materialising rumours.

Windows Phone 8.1 released

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-14 Windows 32 Comments

Microsoft released Windows Phone 8.1 to those who enrolled in the developer preview program (i.e., everyone).

Ars' Peter Bright in his review of 8.1:

The result feels a whole lot more mature and a whole lot more capable than its predecessor. The 0.1 version bump, chosen to align the phone platform with its desktop sibling, belies the true nature of this upgrade. It is substantial, and makes Windows Phone tremendously better.

We might still wish that there were a few more apps, and that developers spoke of the platform in the same breath as iOS and Android, but even in spite of this, Windows Phone 8.1 is a polished, fun, clever, and personal smartphone platform that's just about everyone can enjoy. It's a magnificent smartphone platform.

I've been using it since earlier today, and the notification centre (finally) alone is more than enough to make this a fantastic update. Sadly, my HTC 8X does not seem to be supported by Cortana - other 8X owners are reporting the same, as do 8X owners on Twitter - which makes me worry a little about Cortana, perhaps, being an exclusive feature for Nokia phones, or it having some other restrictive limitations. That, honestly, would be a shame.

Update: Here's an 8X with Cortana working just fine, so the original worries clearly aren't necessary.

Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-10 Windows 62 Comments

It wasn't meant to be this way. Windows XP, now no longer supported, wasn't meant to be popular. For all its popularity and sustained usage, people seem to have forgotten something important about it: it sucked.

The Ars forums are a place for geeks to hang out and chat about tech, and especially in the light of the hostility shown towards Windows 8, we thought it might be fun to take a look at how our forum dwellers reacted when first introduced to Microsoft's ancient operating system.

How times change.

Windows XP officially reached end-of-life today

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-08 Windows 70 Comments

It's finally here. After 12 years, 6 months, and 12 days on the market, Windows XP has hit its end of life. It will receive its last ever set of patches on Windows Update today, and for the most part, that will be that. Any flaws discovered from now on - and it's inevitable that some will be discovered - will never be publicly patched.

How bad is this going to be? It's probably going to be pretty bad. By some measures, about 28 percent of the Web-using public is still using Windows XP, and these systems are going to be ripe for exploitation.

I never liked Windows XP (I used BeOS during XP's early days, and Mac OS X and Linux during XP's later days), so I'm glad to see it go. This terrible operating system should have died out years ago.

Microsoft officially unveils Windows Phone 8.1

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-02 Windows 26 Comments

During the Build keynote, Microsoft also officially unveiled Windows Phone 8.1. Most of its features have long been known, so I'm not going to go into all of them in detail, but suffice it to say this is a huge update. Microsoft focuses a lot on its Google Now and Siri alternative Cortana (The Verge has a great article on it), which works more or less in the same way, but with one interesting strength: integration with third party applications.

Windows Phone 8.1 will become available for developers this month, and will be pushed to current devices in the coming months. It will also be available on new devices during that same timeframe - and it'll arrive on all Windows Phone 8 devices (every time a Microsoft employee points this out, an Android 2.3 device explodes).

I am very psyched for this massive update. It might not make much of a difference in the marketplace, but that doesn't really matter for me personally. This simply looks like a fantastic update, and I can't wait until my developer-ready HTC 8X gets the developer update.

Microsoft unveils universal Windows applications and more

Thom Holwerda 2014-04-02 Windows 99 Comments

Microsoft's Build keynote is ongoing, and there's so much news coming out for Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox One, that it's hard to keep up. The biggest announcement? Universal Windows applications - a single application that runs on phones, tablets, PCs, and yes, even the Xbox One. Of course, developers can still optimise the user interface per device, but it will be one single application binary.

Another piece of news is that several versions of Windows will be available for free: Windows for smartphones, tablets smaller than 9", and the new Windows for the internet of things will all be free. This is, of course, an inevitable consequence of Android's dominance.

Microsoft also shed some light on the future of Windows 8 - and the biggest announcement here is that a future update will allow Metro applications to run in windows on the desktop. In addition, Microsoft has unveiled a new Start menu, that looks like the Windows 7 Start menu with a section for live tiles. These two changes further the merger of desktop and Metro that already started with the Windows 8.1 Update.

In addition, Microsoft also gave a small preview of Office for Metro - about time - built as a universal application.

This is just a selection of things that stood out to me during the keynote, and I have to admit this is some seriously cool stuff. It might be too late - I don't know - but that doesn't make it any less cool.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 download leaked early by Microsoft

Thom Holwerda 2014-03-07 Windows 22 Comments

Microsoft finalized its upcoming Windows 8.1 Update recently, but the company appears to be sharing it a little early today. While the software maker is expected to release the update officially in April, Microsoft has only detailed a few of the features in the update and has not yet provided an official release date. Links to download a final version of the Windows 8.1 Update, thanks to Microsoft’s Windows Update service, have been discovered. A series of patches are required to obtain the full update, but once installed the new desktop-friendly features are enabled.The update can be downloaded via a registry change, or through direct links, but we recommend waiting for Microsoft to officially release it through the normal Windows Update channels in April.

Don't try this on a production machine.