News Bot

I've heard rumors that the Surface RT sales numbers have been incredibly low. The 32GB model, for example, has sold less than 50,000 units online and half that in the the stores. Microsoft didn't think they'd sell - so they only manufactured a small amounts - and this is why they "sold out". The 64GB version has only sold about 100,000 units total. A friend who is an MS employee at one store (name withheld to save his job) mentioned that the return rate is very high - about 20% (1 in 5 sales come back). This would coincide with Ballmer refusing to state any sales numbers: http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-ballmer-not-ready-to-reveal-windows-8-surface-sales-7000006602/ I seems that the Surface with RT is kind of a flop. Akin to the Sony Vita. Is this true - or is this info wrong and they have they actually sold a million units - making it a stunning success? View the full article

I just downloaded and upgraded Windows 8. From the start screen, none of the metro apps will launch. They act as if they are beginning to launch, but they return me back to the start screen. What may be wrong? View the full article

I put Windows 8 on my daughters old laptop over the weekend. She mainly just browses the internet with it so of course the first thing that comes up is why isn't there a shortcut/tile to run the Desktop IE10 on the start screen? (The Metro version of IE10 is simply not acceptable to use.) I know you can just go over to the Desktop Interface to run IE10, but since Metro is the new Start Menu, doesn't it makes sense that you have the ability to add a tile/shortcut for "any" application to the only Start Menu included in Windows 8? I don't believe it's possible to do this, but I mentioned to her that I would check and if not, we'll just install Firefox so she can have a shortcut in the Start Menu to run. View the full article

When I attempt to "Restart" Windows 8 from the charm bar, the system stays forever on the blue "Restarting" screen and never actually restarts. There is no problem if I use "Shut down". Any idea what may be causing this? Thanks. View the full article

Hello, I have the following problem: I have connected my domain account with a live id. I have no problem signing in into the xbox app, but it is impossible to sign in to the music app. I am using Windows 8 Enterprise x64 and made an upgrade from windows 7 enterprise. The error message is: 0xc00d11cd (0x82bc0008) Any ideas for a solution here? Cause i would love to hear music at work ;) Thanks Wolfgang View the full article

First off sorry for not putting a comment here originally the comment box doesnt rendered properly in Safari, just comes up with a progress bar...anyway at another PC Now with IE 8 Ok following are the steps I took to setup Win 8 Pro RTM Created Windows 8 Pro RTM USB Boot image Disks Disk 0 SATA (Data drive docs and files)- 2 TB Seagate Disk 1 SATA (OS, Apps, Software Installs) - 2 TB Seagate Disk 2 OCZ Agility3 (Games) - 128 GB SSD Disabled disk 0 and 2 to insure win 8 system partition created on Disk 1 - previously issue with Win 7 Installed OS - Everything booted up fine Re-Enabled Disk 0 and Disk 2 - Everything fine Installed VS2008 + SP, VS 2010 + SP, VS 2012 Installed SQL 2012 Developer Enabled Win8 Hyper-V - troubles began - couldn't update - after a couple reboots ended up with the Windows 8 blue logo - had to refresh Refresh worked - However didn’t disable Disk 0 and Disk 2 for the Refresh Installed Windows Media Centre - ended up paying for key as the free key didn't work - suspect possible issue with the feature activation on the Australian Windows Store Installed Splastop Desktop windows 8 Installed Office 2010 Trusted the PC Installed Hyper-V again - troubles again couldn't boot - same blue windows 8 logo screen – this time unable to Refresh repair. Attempted restart from USB Boot image. I can get to repair screen however can’t move forward from this point as it says the drive is locked. I’ve no idea how to unlock in Windows 8, I can probably do this from the command prompt, assuming its possible to unlock from there, just don’t know how to do it, which is what I need help with please. At this stage if I can get Win 8 refreshed(without file loss) I plan is to copy my software files back to my Data Drive and then do a fresh install of Windows 7, which works well. To be honest little disappointed with the new Frankenstein Win8 Classic/RT experience. Love the fact that Hyper-V is available in 8 (if it works) but might wait for SP1 and possibly a Start Button/Orb on the Desktop Anyway any help in unlocking my drive would be greatly appreciate. Cheers Geoff View the full article

I'm trying to create a Windows 8 snapshot using: C:Windowssystem32>recimg /createimage C:Refresh Source OS location: C: Recovery image path: C:RefreshCustomRefresh.wim Creating recovery image. Press [ESC] to cancel. Initializing 100% Creating snapshot 100% Writting image (this may take a while) 8% The recovery image cannot be written. Error Code - 0x80070006 I've got a C: with over 40GB of free space left on it, and I've also tried saving to the second D: partition on which I have >10GB of space with the same result (I'm preety sure that I don't need much more since the Windows installation for which I'm trying to create the recovery image for has only ~15GB ... it has only been fully updated and had Office installed on it (after fresh install)? View the full article

I just upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and none of the tiles except Maps works. They just seem to load for EVER, leaving me in front of a blue screen. I tried everything: changing the screen resolution, creating another user account, running all sorts of tests, multiple restarts, turning off my antivirus, deleting the ole key etc. It looks like a lot of other people have the same problem yet there has been no solution. Microsoft should never release something not functioning! View the full article

So Windows 8 was great, then installed AVG Antivirus and now it keeps restarting and i can't get it to stop, keeps BSOD with DPC Watchdog Violation. Anyone know how to fix, I get about 30sec-2min before it BSOD? View the full article

Is there any way to make the windows 8 start screen STAY active on one of the monitors while working on the others? If not the start screen is just a horrible waste of space and time for me and countless other users who will have this same issue. Also is there a way to make the start screen boot onto a monitor that is not my main? This needs to be implemented as it is an annoyance every time I boot up my computer. I know this is an issue for many users already and I think this is a very needed addition to make any kind of use of the windows 8 start screen with multiple monitors. Thanks for your time. View the full article

Not sure how to get Windows Media Center to auto launch when I restart my PC... This article: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Start-Windows-Media-Center-automatically-when-Windows-starts Says I can go into some settings, but when I hit that screen I only have two options: "Show a warning before.." and "Show task bar notifications" View the full article

I am running Windows 8 Pro RTM, activated and updated. Last week suddenly it startet, that everytime Windows 8 starts it opens the "My Documents" Folder by its own and so switching to the Desktop. It is really anoying. I made a full fresh Install of Windows 8 in hope this issue will vanish, but after login in (synchronizing) with my Microsoft Accout the issue was back. Any ideas? View the full article

I have two local accounts with empty passwords. When computer boots it always logs in as the first account. Is there a way to make it show the log on screen, so I would be able to choose which account to use? View the full article

Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox are not working in Windows 8 View the full article

You can upgrade Windows 8 pro to Enterprise View the full article

sir/madam I am a windows 8 pro user and my windows is fully activated but still when I go to P.C SETTINGS I am not able to change my account picture, lock screen & start screen display, So kindly help me. Regards utkarsh chandel View the full article

Two questions: Does Office Pro Plus 2013 work in a Terminal Services/Citrix environment and can it be licensed for this? 2010 could NOT. Can 2013 work? AND Does 2013 Pro Plus require local administrator rights to install on a PC? View this thread

Hi - I'm trying to get an Office 365 Exchange account set-up with the Windows 8 Mail app. It's giving me an error stating the following: To sync this account, you first need to: Make your Windows user account an administrator. I do not want to give admin privileges to the individual user account on Windows (as the error is stating that it wants me to give admin privileges to the local Windows 8 account - not on Office 365) and I cannot find any restriction set-up in the admin console/settings on Office 365 (or in Widows 8) that would require this privilege. This same account (on Office 365) can connect fine via Outlook 2010 and a Windows Phone 7 mail app. How can I solve this?.. View the full article

I am running a web application that requires System.IdentityModel.dll file. This DLL file is present in Windows 7, .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, however, it is missing from Windows 8 .NetFramework 3.5. Is there a reason it was left out? How can I get that DLL file into my assembly in Windows 8? Could not load file or assembly 'System.IdentityModel.Selectors, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. View the full article

On a remote desktop session to an Enterprise edition of Windows 8 I cannot get it to allow me to use more than one local monitor but less than all my local monitors. In my setup I have three local monitors and wish to use only two for the remote desktop session. I have used gpedit.msc to set the value of the setting below to 2 per this article: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/07/01/using-multiple-monitors-in-remote-desktop-session.aspx but when I try to connect to the remote desktop after setting it to 2 and doing a gpupdate it will only connect one of my local monitors. I had to disable the setting and let it connect to all three again. Is there no way to use only two of my three local monitors in a remote desktop session to Windows 8 Enterprise Edition? BTW, I could connect to Windows 7 Enterprise edition using the RDC /span option. Not as nice as full two monitor support but usable and for me better than using all three local monitors. I have been unable to get this option to connect to more than one monitor with Windows 8. Thank you in advance. View the full article

How do I enable Windows Update desktop notifications or a tile or something? ThereHAS to be a way. For Christ sake... It doesn't show you if there are new updates unless you check manually through Windows Update (no, I don't have it set automatically and I won't have it that way either). You loose important updates. You don't know if the computer has to be restarted. View the full article

yet.. Icons are located at C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsMicrosoft Office 2013 is there a way to "Pin to Start Menu" all of them at once? thanks View the full article

Like the person here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/how-can-i-disable-auto-sign-in-for-internet/6501d8bb-543f-4fce-83c4-5c719ddb517f I would like to figure out a way to disable the automatic sign in when you go to a Microsoft website like Outlook.com within IE10. The account I am using on my Windows 8 machine for example would be : username1@outlook.com But if I want to go to Outlook.com, and check my email for account: username2@outlook.com, as soon as I connect to the website, it automatically logs me in with username1@outlook.com. So I have to log out, and back on as the account I want to use. Yes I could switch my Windows 8 account over to the 2nd account, but I would be in the same boat if I wanted to check mail for the first username. Right now to avoid this problem I simply just have to use a browser other than IE, but I would like to see if there is someway to get IE10 not to automatically sign me in under my current Microsoft Account I have on Windows 8. Resetting IE settings, etc does not help. This is something Windows 8 does by default with IE10 on every machine. View the full article

I have a problem with a pdf file which does not open with reader in windows 8 but it opens properly with adobe pdf reader. All other pdf can be opened in reader.But when i open a pdf(see this link for pdf for which i got error http://incometaxsoft.com/temp/Form.pdf) it gives error as "Can't open this file. There's a problem with file format". The same file opens properly in adobe pdf reader.You can check the pdf file which i have mentioned in the link above.But the reader which comes with windows 8 can open some other pdf in the same PC.What may be the error causing this??[url=" View the full article

Today I was checking "Metro" control panel and noticed that apps list in the notifications settings is empty (I have apps capable of showing toasts and they are listed properly in the lockscreen settings). Anyone had similar problem and know how to fix it? I also have a strange problem with "Open in command prompt" command from Windows Explorer menu - it doesn't work only on one partition (nothing happens after clicking it, partition letter is D: if that helps). There is no problem with C or E. "Open command prompt as admin" works on every partition without any problem. All partitions have NTFS files system, C and E was formatted during Windows 8 installation, E wasn't touched since I installed Windows 7 last year. I tried running Chkdsk but it didn't find any problems. Screenshot of blank apps list in notifications settings: View the full article