Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
The folks at Microsoft have just announced in a blog post that Windows 10 will be released to the general public on July 29. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, it will be free during the first year!
Like virtually everyone else on our planet, I was very underwhelmed with Windows 8 when it was released. To be blunt, it was just plain awful. [Read more…]
Question from Millie H.: I heard that Windows 10 is supposed to be released pretty soon. Will the Windows 7 that’s on my computer still work after that or will I need to buy Windows 10?
Rick’s answer: Millie, you have nothing whatsoever to worry about. Your computer’s Windows 7 installation will work just fine for the foreseeable future. In fact, Microsoft has committed to supporting Windows 7 with regular security updates until the year 2020.
But that being said, you might want to consider upgrading your computer to Windows 10 when it is released anyway. Here’s why… [Read more…]
Could Windows 10 be the last new version of Windows we will ever install on our PCs and mobile devices?
If some of things being said and hinted at by Microsoft are any indication, the answer could very well be yes.
It’s no secret that Windows 10 will likely be sold on a subscription model, which means that as long as we keep making periodic payments to Microsoft our Windows installations will keep on running on our devices without interruption. [Read more…]
To date, the Windows 10 Technical Preview has introduced a number of awesome new features that will likely be included in the upcoming commercial release of Windows 10, and one that I like quite a bit is the handy new Quick Access view in File Explorer.
In a nutshell, Quick Access view displays the most recently used files, folders and related data by default every time you open the File Explorer window. This really speeds up your work flow if you tend to use the same files and folders over and over again.
As mentioned above, I personally like the new Quick Access view, but plenty of others think it’s the worst thing since the introduction of Windows Vista. If you don’t particularly care for it either, you can easily turn it off. Here’s how: [Read more…]
Question from Cale G.: Rick, I read your post about installing the Windows 10 Preview and I’d like to try it out on my old Acer laptop that’s currently running Windows Vista.
I checked and the machine seems to meet all the hardware requirements, so I figured why not install it and check it out?
The problem is I heard you have to have a Microsoft account in order to install the Windows 10 Preview, and sure enough when I went to install it I was prompted to either log in to an existing account or create a new one.
If I can possibly avoid it, I don’t want a Microsoft account, and I definitely don’t want to have to log into Windows on my laptop through one! Hence my question: Can you tell me if there’s a way to install Windows 10 without having to open a Microsoft account first?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]