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After years of anticipation, today officially marks the end of Windows 7 and 8/8.1, Microsoft has confirmed.The aged operating systems will no longer receive Microsoft security updates from today, January 10, 2023, marking the end of their official lifespan.Anyone using the software will now be at risk of cyberattacks from criminals exploiting current and future security flaws and vulnerabilities, and is urged to update to newer Windows versions - particularly Windows 11 - immediately in order to stay safe.

There’s a joke that Microsoft follows a good, bad pattern with its OS launches: Windows XP: good, Windows Vista: bad, Windows 7: good. Windows 8: bad, Windows 10: good. Alas, in keeping with the cycle, Microsoft is botching the Windows 11 launch, and it might wreck an otherwise good OS. Thanks to a leaked build, a launch event, and a newly released Windows Insider preview, we have a good idea of what Windows 11 will look like now. And for the most part, it looks like Windows 10 with a fresh coat of paint. Windows 11 dumps live tiles, moves...

If you get an error code that starts with 0x8024, the Windows Update Troubleshooter can help resolve the problem. Make sure you have internet access, then download the Update Troubleshooter version that matches your version of Windows. Download Update Troubleshooter for Windows 10 Download Update Troubleshooter for Windows 7 and Windows 8

Well my old windows 8 computer is slowly dying. I have a HP running windows 10 and want to have email like I used to. This new computer will not accept Win live mail or classic shell. Help needed. Thanks in advance.

On Thursday, February 4, Satya Nadella will celebrate his second anniversary as the CEO of Microsoft. It's been an eventful couple of years. Microsoft has grown its crucial cloud business, released Windows 10 to a much better reception than its loathed predecessor, launched a bunch of great apps for iPhone and Android, and generally made people like it a lot more. But the real victory of Satya Nadella — the truly monumental shift — has been within the company. Under Nadella, Microsoft is pointed in one direction for first time in modern memory.

Users need to upgrade to Windows 8.1, Internet Explorer 11 Microsoft is ending support for Windows 8 and older versions of Internet Explorer today. Windows 8 users who haven't upgraded to Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer users who aren't running the latest version of the web browser -- IE 11, in most cases -- will no longer have access to patches and updates to keep their software secure from malware and hackers when new vulnerabilities are discovered. While Windows 8 was released in 2012, and Microsoft typically supports an operating system for a minimum of 10 years after its release,...

A new type of ransomware has been spotted, the first of its kind, a ransomware that uses JavaScript to infect its users, being coded on top of the NW.js platform. NW.js, formerly known as Node-WebKit, is a powerful platform that allows developers to create desktop applications via Node.js modules. The platform lets programmers use JavaScript in the same way, and with the same power and reach inside the underlying operating system's guts, as other more powerful languages like C++, Delphi, Java, ActionScript, and C#. If the name hasn't tipped you off yet, NW.js uses a stripped down version of WebKit,...

... So what are the most common types of malware? They fall into two main categories: those that are basically no more than a nuisance, and those that are aimed at getting money from the victim. Perhaps the most common example of nuisance malware is adware. According to Oh, this is typically delivered along with free software or by compromised or malicious web sites. Adware rarely does any real damage, but some examples are hard to remove. The term was once applied to 'advertising supported software.' In return for getting a useful application at no charge, you accept that it...

Conspiracy theories are gaining steam as accusations about Microsoft "spy patches" heat up. But a much larger part of the story may sound familiar to any experienced Windows or Office user. The tinfoil ball started rolling on Aug. 24, when Sergey Tkachenko at Winaero.com published an incendiary discovery: Four recent Windows 7 and 8.1 patches -- KB 3022345, 3068708, 3075249, and 3080149 -- were sending a potful of data to Microsoft's servers. In at least one case, the spying patches transmit data through hard-coded servers, bypassing the Hosts file and making it even harder to block their activity. On Aug....

So it looks like the Windows 10 launch was a big success if early adoption numbers are to be believed. The Register drops some data from StatCounter showing that Windows 10 already accounts for over 3.5% of desktop operating systems, up from just under 1.4% the week before. More interestingly, The Register says, “the biggest loser looks to be Windows 8.1, which dipped from 16.45 per cent share to 14.93 per cent,” while “Windows 7 went from 54.41per cent to 53.8 per cent and Windows 8 dropped from 3.6 percent to 3.46 percent.” Of course, Windows 10 has some key advantages going...

On the verge of Windows 10's release, its predecessor has quietly moved into the #2 spot for market share among operating systems. Windows 8.1 has now overtaken Windows XP, the one time king of all operating systems, but it's something of a hollow victory as Windows 7 still leads by a wide margin. According to Netmarketshare, as of June 2015, Windows 8.1's usage has increased to 13.12% among all operating systems, while XP sits at 11.98% and Windows 7 still accounts for a dominant 60.98% share. These three OS' also represent the only three with double digit market share. The...

At Microsoft’s Windows 10 event today, the company shared that all Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users will be able to upgrade to Windows 10, for free. Microsoft said that the free upgrade will be valid for the first year immediately after the release. Those on Windows Phone 8.1 will also get the update. Terry Myerson, VP of Windows at Microsoft said that the company wanted to make it a “seamless upgrade” for those users when Windows 10 is released.

Everyone is well-aware by now that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have not seen the impressive adoption rate of their predecessor. Yet the duo had a particularly good run last month, finally passing 15 percent market share together, according to the latest figures from Net Applications.More specifically, Windows 8 gained 0.29 percentage points to 5.88 percent while Windows 8.1 gained 4.25 percentage points to 10.92 percent. Together, they owned 16.80 percent of the market at the end of October, up from 12.26 percent at the end of September. It’s certainly a big jump, and Windows 8.1 is finally in...

Microsoft has released a Technical Preview of its upcoming Windows 10 operating system with an announced launch window of "later in the year" for 2015, eliminating earlier speculation that it may launch in April of 2015. But what April will bring is the firm's annual Build conference where more information on Windows 10 will be available. This Technical Preview's license runs out on April 15, 2015, so the timing will be perfect. After an unsuccessful attempt to bridge desktop and mobile operations in Window 8, Microsoft opted to move two steps forward, skipping the Windows 9 name and heading straight...

Windows 10 preview — little change but some requested.I have been trying out the Windows 10 Technical Preview, Build 9841, which is a free download here or here after you register. Note that as explained in “Windows 10: You've got questions, I've got answers,” “The Windows 10 Technical Preview is an instrumented version. It collects information about your use of the product, including some text and voice input, and returns some of that data to Microsoft for use in tuning performance and improving voice recognition and spell-checking.”Note that this is not a professional review, but it may be of help...

We already know quite a bit about Windows 9 (or whatever Microsoft decides to call it). Thanks to the president of Microsoft Indonesia, we might now know another detail about Microsoft’s upcoming OS—its price. According to Indonesian news site Detik.com (via BGR), Andreas Diantoro, the president of Microsoft Indonesia, confirms that Windows 9 will be a free upgrade for all Windows 8 users. Why it matters: Users are becoming more accustomed to free operating system updates, given the fact that even major iOS, Android, and OS X updates are gratis. And after the negative reception Windows 8 received, Microsoft has...

After spending the past two years in damage control mode over Windows 8, Microsoft will officially begin a new era for its OS on Tuesday, when it’s expected to unveil a preview of Windows’ next major version during an event focused on enterprise customers. After the success of Windows 7, Microsoft misread the market with Windows 8 and botched the product’s user interface, leaving a trail of many unhappy customers, especially in the consumer market. Among businesses, Microsoft encountered much resistance to upgrade, as many CIOs clung to the very stable Windows 7, and took a pass on Windows 8...

It’s official, Windows 8 is a write-off . Sales for the operating system have been poor and now it is even starting to lose market share to Windows 7. To Microsoft MSFT -0.12%’s credit it has bravely persisted addressing issue after issue. Most notable was the major Windows 8.1 Update 1 patch released in April which makes the OS a genuinely credible platform. Still it remains far from perfect and now Microsoft is prematurely pulling the plug. In a blog post by Microsoft Senior Marketing Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc, he explains that there will be no more major update releases...

Microsoft attempted something different and daring with Windows 8. It introduced a whole new interface and means of interaction with your PC that was identical to a smartphone or tablet. It threw out the “Start” menu and mouse-driven interface people had used for decades in favor of a touch-driven interface with tiles, some of which received active information updates. And people hated it. “They tried to get their entire audience to jump from a UI [user interface] they were comfortable with to a brand new one with a serious learning curve,” California-based Creative Strategies tech analyst and president Tim Bajarin...

The action will be much bigger than the 5,800 job cuts announced in 2009, The New York Times said. Microsoft reportedly will announce the biggest round of layoffs in its history on Thursday as massive changes wrought by new CEO Satya Nadella start to take hold at the struggling IT giant.