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I have two computers running XP. The most important one to upgrade right now is my desktop. I've gone back and forth trying to decide whether to go with 7 or 8. Furthermore the terminology being used for OS packages adds to the confusion for me. For example Starter, Builder, etc. Here is what my computer has. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600 System Manufacturer Dell Inc. System Model Inspiron 530s System Type X86-based PC Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13 GenuineIntel ~1795 Mhz BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.0.12, 3/1/2008 SMBIOS Version...

Microsoft sold more than 200 million Windows 8 and 8.1 licenses during the controversial OS's first 15 months, Tami Reller, the company's executive VP of marketing, revealed Thursday at a Goldman Sachs technology conference.Sounds impressive, right? Not exactly.Sure, 200 million is a big number -- that's about one license for every 35 people on the planet, a level of ubiquity most companies would kill for. But Microsoft isn't most companies. Put into historical or aspirational context, Windows 8 and 8.1 have underwhelmed.Not convinced? Here are five reasons not to be impressed.1. Windows 8 sales can't keep pace with Windows 7's precedent.In...

The Windows XP death clock is ticking away. While Microsoft has extended support for malware protection, do not be fooled -- XP will be officially unsupported on April 8. If Microsoft has its druthers, these XP users will upgrade to Windows 8 and maybe even buy a new computer. However, there is a problem with this -- the Windows 8 UI is radically different from XP and people do not like change (especially people clinging to an operating system from 2001). Also, they may not need to buy a new computer, because their existing is probably fast enough... for...

HP really wants people to buy a Windows 7 PC instead of a Windows 8 machine. The PC maker has been emailing customers over the weekend noting that "Windows 7 is back." A new promotion, designed to entice people to select Windows 7 over Windows 8 with $150 of "savings," has launched on HP’s website with a "back by popular demand" slogan. The move is clearly designed to position Windows 7 over Microsoft’s touch-centric Windows 8 operating system.

Microsoft indicated this week that it has fixed a Windows XP resource-hog problem associated with the system's SVCHOST.EXE processes. Windows XP users affected by this problem typically found that the operating system was using up system resources for 15 minutes to an hour after startup, making it difficult to use the machine during that period. The Microsoft Update team had vowed last month to spend the holiday break tackling the issue, which has plagued some users for years. The fix involved stopping the system from perpetually checking Internet Explorer updates. Microsoft indicated that the fix was rolled out on Tuesday....

Nearly all of the ATMs in the world are running the Windows XP operating system, introduced by Microsoft 13 years ago—and incredibly out of date, as any tech enthusiast will tell you. On April 8, Microsoft will officially end the tech support for the aging OS, which was replaced by Windows Vista in 2007, Windows 7 in 2009, Windows 8 in 2012 and Windows 8.1 in 2013. […] If an ATM isn’t upgraded, it will continue to function, experts said. Withdrawals, deposits, and other transactions will work as they did before. But the machines will be more vulnerable to cyber...

Windows 8/8.1 has topped 10% market share for the first time, apparently picking up a few users from among those who are finally leaving Windows XP behind. According to Web analytics firm NetMarkeshare, users of all versions of Windows 8 amounted to 10.49% of Internet users for the month of December, up from 9.25% in December. This as users of Windows XP have dipped from 31.22% to 28.98%. While the showing for Windows 8/8.1 is a milestone, it is also part of a gradual trend. Since last February, use of the operating system has risen 7.82 percentage points while XP...

Regardless of how stalled Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSFT +0.69% business seems to Wall Street analysts, the fact of the matter is that this company powers 90.73 percent of the Desktops and Notebooks around the world. Its nearest competitor at second place is Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) AAPL +0.14% Mac operating system which has only 7.54 percent market share. Microsoft released its latest upgrade to the much discussed Windows 8 operating system, Windows 8.1, in October of 2013. Last month, during December, devices running the Windows 8 and 8.1 crossed over 10 percent market share for the first time. A month earlier, in...

I have an old Windows XP machine that I want to do a low level format to wipe out all the data. Downloaded Disk Wipe, but everytime I run it, it states the partition is in use. My assumption is I need to create a bootable USB with the application but haven't had any luck. Any and all insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Makes obvious prediction -- since it's calling the shots -- that ending support for XP will mean 'more systems will get compromised' Computerworld - Microsoft today used the hoary practice of predicting next year to drive another nail into Windows XP's coffin.

FireEye Labs has identified a new Windows local privilege escalation vulnerability in the wild. The vulnerability cannot be used for remote code execution but could allow a standard user account to execute code in the kernel. Currently, the exploit appears to only work in Windows XP. This local privilege escalation vulnerability is used in-the-wild in conjunction with an Adobe Reader exploit that appears to target a patched vulnerability. The exploit targets Adobe Reader 9.5.4, 10.1.6, 11.0.02 and prior on Windows XP SP3. Those running the latest versions of Adobe Reader should not be affected by this exploit. Post exploitation, the...

My daughter's XP desktop computer crashed, and I am replacing it with another XP box. The old main drive is a slave drive on the new machine, and I can get all the document and picture files. Firefox is being a bear, however....is there any way to recover the Bookmarks file from the old disk and merge it onto the new one? If I had exported a bookmarks.htm file BEFORE the crash, I would be fine...but even running Firefox from the old drive won't seem to let me grab the bookmarks.

Review Following approximately one year after the release to manufacturing of Windows 8.0, which incorporated some radical changes, based around a new tablet platform running alongside the traditional desktop environment, Windows 8.1 is a critical release. Most Windows users have not warmed to the platform variously called Metro, Modern or Windows Runtime. Microsoft designed Windows 8.0 so that users cannot altogether ignore the Modern environment, even if they run only desktop applications. Moves like replacing the familiar Start menu with a Start screen and putting essential features like Shutdown in a somewhat hidden Charms menu were confusing and added little...

Microsoft was hoping Windows 8 would be such a hit with enterprises that they'd stop using Windows XP, an aging operating system that debuted in 2001. That hasn't happened, but HP thinks enterprises will have no choice but to upgrade to new PCs when Microsoft stops releasing security fixes for XP next April. "We think this will bring a big opportunity for HP," Enrique Lore, SVP and GM of HP's business PC unit, said in a press conference Monday on the eve of HP's Discover customer conference, as reported by Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau. Lore said 40% to 50% of businesses...

Microsoft will end technical support for two of its most popular products, Windows XP and Office 2003, on April 8, 2014. The company said XP customers would no longer receive security updates or get tech support one year from now.

I need some computer advice. I have 4 computers at home. Two laptops and two desktops. One laptop has Windows 7 and is used by my wife for genealogy research and net surfing. The others are mine and they have XP (desktop currently needs new MB) Windows 7 (desktop) and Vista (laptop used in my traveling and some of my work. I absolutely hate the Vista machine. It is slow and even slower when running multiple pages. I have run every correction and restoration program available on it and I still hate using it. When I use it at work,...

Survey - Redmond so busy pushing Win 8, some IT directors didn't get the memo***************************************** A large number of Microsoft customers are in for a rude awakening on 8 April 2014. With less than 400 days to go, 15 per cent of those running Windows XP are still unaware that that’s the date Microsoft finally turns off all support for its legacy PC operating system, according to a recent survey. After 8 April next year, Microsoft will no longer make bug fixes or security updates for Windows XP, meaning customers will be naked and vulnerable to hackers and viruses and...

My wife's Dell 640 laptop has picked up some malware that affects the display. It shows up as faint rainbow colored horizontal bars across the screen, plus a circular, concentric, variable rainbow graphic in the upper left corner of the windows startup screen. The machine is running XP professional. The AVG software on the machine doesn't recognize it, nor did Trend Micro Housecall.

Microsoft has kicked off what it calls a "two-year countdown" to the death of Windows XP and the Office 2003 productivity suite. Separately, Microsoft announced that Windows Vista, the problem-plagued operating system that never really took hold among customers, exited mainstream support on April 10. In a product's extended support phase, Microsoft provides security patches to registered users but offers other fixes, including reliability and stability updates, only to organizations that have support contracts with the company. Windows XP and Office 2003 will no longer be supported as of April 8, 2014, a company spokeswoman said in a recent blog...

Microsoft says Windows XP users have two years to remain with the older operating system before it ends all support and updates for the software. While users can continue to use Windows XP after the end of Microsoft support, the lack of such support and updates, especially security patches, will make the operating system less and less secure as time passes, Microsoft's Stella Chernyak wrote in a blog post. "Windows XP and Office 2003 were great software releases for their time, but the technology environment has shifted," she wrote. Support for Office 2003 will end at the same time as...