Windows
Microsoft is betting big on artificial intelligence and generative AI at all levels of the company, from servers and Azure down to individual Windows PCs. And that big bet is about to become a lot more visible on Windows machines in the future, as Microsoft has instructed Windows OEMs to change their keyboard layouts to include a dedicated key for their Copilot AI service. Replacing the Menu key (or equivalent) on Windows 11 laptop keyboards, the repurposed key will instead provide direct access to Copilot, launching Microsoft's hub application for on-system AI. The Copilot key's primary function is to activate the Copilot generative AI assistant in Windows 11, provided that it the system has Copilot installed and logged in to a Microsoft account. Otherwise, on...
Windows 8 Released To Manufacturing
Right on schedule, Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing on the first day of the first week of August. Microsoft has put out a full...
57 by Ryan Smith on 8/1/2012
Windows 8 Gets A Launch Date: October 26th
After previously announcing that Windows 8 would have a retail launch sometime in late October, Microsoft has nailed down a final date: Friday, October 26th. The launch on a...
39 by Ryan Smith on 7/19/2012
Windows 8 To RTM In August, Retail In October
On the heels of last week’s announcement of Microsoft’s promotional Windows 8 upgrade pricing, Microsoft has announced a tentative delivery schedule for Windows 8 today at their Worldwide Partner...
19 by Ryan Smith on 7/9/2012
Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Release Preview; NVIDIA & AMD Prep New Win8 Drivers
Closing out the month of May, Microsoft gave everyone an early present by putting up the final preview version of Windows 8, the Windows 8 Release Preview. Originally expected...
23 by Ryan Smith on 6/1/2012
Windows 8 Release Preview Due in First Week of June
Microsoft has announced that the Windows 8 Release Preview, a near-final build of the upcoming operating system, will be available to the public in the first week of June...
38 by Andrew Cunningham on 4/24/2012
Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Product Editions
Microsoft Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc has finally given us our first official information about product editions for Windows 8, which is now confirmed to be the product's actual shipping...
56 by Andrew Cunningham on 4/16/2012
Microsoft Talks Windows 8 Touch Experience on Windows 7 Tablets
Microsoft's Jerry Koh and Jeff Piira gave some insight into the Windows 8 touch experience in yet another Building Windows 8 blog post yesterday. They talked specifically about the...
18 by Andrew Cunningham on 3/29/2012
Microsoft Talks Screen Resolution in Windows 8, Suggests "Retina"-esque Tablets
Microsoft's David Washington has penned another informational tome on the Building Windows 8 blog, this one about Windows 8 and its support for varying screen resolutions. The above chart...
29 by Andrew Cunningham on 3/22/2012
Google and Mozilla Working on Metro-Enabled Browsers, Opera May Follow Suit
Both Mozilla and Google have confirmed to various sources that they have begun (or are planning to begin) work on Metro-style versions of their Firefox and Chrome browsers for...
11 by Andrew Cunningham on 3/13/2012
In-Depth with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Windows has changed a lot since Windows 95 ushered in the modern era of the desktop operating system almost two decades ago—the underlying technology that makes Windows what it...
286 by Andrew Cunningham, Ryan Smith, Kristian Vättö & Jarred Walton on 3/9/2012
Windows 8 Consumer Preview: A Quick Look at Battery Life (Updated)
With each new operating system in recent history, Microsoft has promised better battery life. We tested this back in the early days of Windows 7 and found that while...
113 by Jarred Walton on 3/1/2012
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available for Download
Adventurous Windows users can now download the Windows 8 Consumer preview from Microsoft's web site using the link provided below. The preview version of the new OS is available...
14 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/29/2012
Microsoft Showcases SkyDrive Metro and Desktop Apps for Windows 8
Microsoft has talked a bit about SkyDrive before in its plans for Windows 8, but Microsoft's Mike Torres and Omar Shahine have authored a Building Windows 8 blog post...
17 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/20/2012
Windows Store App Submission Process Detailed
Microsoft’s Jonathan Garrigues has detailed some aspects of the submissions process for the upcoming Windows Store on the company’s Windows Store for Developers blog. The post describes in detail...
8 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/15/2012
Microsoft Discusses Windows 8 Accessibility Improvements
After last week's broad, sweeping post about Windows on ARM, the Building Windows 8 team is back to discussing the nuts and bolts of the operating system - today...
13 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/14/2012
VLC 2.0 Announced: New UI and Blu-ray Support for OS X
VideoLAN has announced VLC 2.0 and the first release candidate is available to the public today. The biggest changes are in the OS X version but there are a...
22 by Kristian Vättö on 2/13/2012
Microsoft Provides Windows on ARM Details
We've known that Microsoft has been planning an ARM-compatible version of Windows since well before we knew anything else about Windows 8, but the particulars have often been obscured...
62 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/9/2012
Microsoft Makes Changes to Windows 8's File Management Changes
We've been covering the changes in Windows 8 fairly closely since Microsoft started talking about the upcoming operating system, and while most of these changes will probably land in...
7 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/31/2012
Microsoft Office 15 Reaches Technical Preview Milestone
Apart from a few screenshots leaked early last year, not much was known about the next major release of Microsoft Office codenamed “Office 15”. However, as of yesterday, Microsoft...
20 by Saumitra Bhagwat on 1/31/2012
Windows 8 Motion Sensor Support Detailed
Windows 8's tablet-centric focus means that it's going to pick up a lot of new features to support hardware particular to those devices - Microsoft's Gavin Gear took to...
22 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/25/2012
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