Tech: Crashes: MicroSoft Windows operating system

Most of the visitors who come to refWrite Backpage for a portion of their sometimes daily online reading, use Windows personal computers.  These are prone to crashes, too often, too regularly.  What can be done about?  I suggest that Windows users among our readers check out this item from the free newsletter MakeUseOf.  I'll keep my eye on this blog-entry to re-do the pictures shoud they degenerate to blank boxes, etc.  Oops!  There's an Intro to this piece and I append it here at the start:

— Technowlb, refWrite Backpage technics newspotter, analyst, columnist


MakeUSeOf article by Matt Smith

Tip of the Day: Windows automatically restarts when a blue screen of death (BSOD) occurs. To prevent this from happening so you can view the exact error message -- which can help you Google the problem -- press the Windows key, type Advanced, click the View advanced system settings option, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, and uncheck the Automatically restart checkbox.

Why Does Windows Crash? The Top 10 Reasons by Matt Smith Oh, great. Another blue screen, boot issue or frozen screen in Windows. Now you have to restart and lose most or all of the work you'd been trying to accomplish. It's frustrating both because of the interruption and because the cause often isn't clear. Crashes aren't just a part of using Windows. The operating system is stable for many people, so if your PC consistently crashes there is most likely a reason. Let's take a look at the 10 most likely reasons why Windows crashes. Bad Memory Or Motherboard Many crashes, particularly those that result in a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD), occur because of a memory or motherboard issue. This can result in a Fatal Exception Error, which basically means data that should be stored in memory could not be retrieved. You can test memory with a utility like Memtest86 or, in some cases, a built-in motherboard diagnostic tool (see the motherboard's manual).  Another way to test is to simply swap in new memory and see if the issue goes away. If it does not, and the RAM you installed was correct, the motherboard may be the issue. Read more ...

Technics: Microsoft: The software manufacturer at last blinks in the glare of Europe's exam of its products there

In an ongoing battle with Europe's sales regulators, Microsoft has made a gesture toward internal relaxation of its self-established proprietary r+ts.

Microsoft proposed including a "ballot screen" that would make it easy for Windows 7 users to install a competing Web browser, set it as the default and disable Internet Explorer, the European Commission said in a statement. PC makers would also be able to install competing Web browsers and disable IE.

"The Commission welcomes this proposal, and will now investigate its practical effectiveness in terms of ensuring genuine consumer choice," it said.

This particular infobit (perhaps even factoid) has been revealed by James Niccolai of IDG News Service via PCWorld, "Microsoft offers choice of browsers to satisfy EU."

Technotes, by Technowlb

If Microsoft (MS) makes a serious accomodation to the European market for personal computers, the consumers of said market who woud want MS Windows operating system/s but don't want to take on any version of the failed browser series Internet Explorer (a browser-bias that Microsoft has traditionally imposed), it woud seem a major precedent is about to be set that coud result in backflare demand for the same freedom of choice among MS products in the USA.

Technics: Internet: MicroSoft, Yahoo to join in online search services, compete with Google

Bloomberg.com published with updates a report by Jonathan Thaw and Jason Kelly that relates to major changes coming to the battle of titans on the Internet, particularly the search services. Yahoo and Google are the major two, with Google far in the lead but not that far. "Microsoft, Yahoo May Partner to Challenge Google in Web Search" (May5,2k7).

MicroSoft has been unable to break effectively into the field, but wants part of the ad revenues that the search services routinely place on their pages. What is being presented to the public at the moment is called a "partnership," but the relation being explored seems to have in its background MS's intent to buy and swallow ("merge") Yahoo in six months time.

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. have held talks about a partnership designed to boost their share of the Web search and advertising market and catch up with Google Inc., people briefed on the discussions said.

The discussions are in the early stages and focus on a partnership rather than a merger, said one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the negotiations are private. Shares of Yahoo jumped the most in three years yesterday after the New York Post said Microsoft wants to buy the company.

Yahoo and Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, have struggled to dent Google's dominance in searching the Web and in the booming market for advertising spots next to search results. A combination would triple Microsoft's share of the U.S. search market to 38.4 percent, rivaling Google's 48.3 percent, according to ComScore Inc.

``It gets them enough economies of scale to be a viable force in search,'' said Walter Price, who oversees about $2 billion including Microsoft shares at RCM Capital Management in San Francisco. ``You have to ratchet up your capital expenditure to compete with Google.''

What this will mean for consumers (web users) hopefully will be more and better services, in the first instance, by Google. I could make some recommendations in that regard, as I don't think the ads I obstruded onto other's webpages when I search are sufficiently compensated by the time-consuming awkwardnesses I have to crawl thru when using Google. The Google ads on refWrite are not at all those I would select from their stable, tho usually they are tolerable, at other times downr+t obnoxious. But that's another story.

Technics: Internet Software: MicroSoft promises truckload of upgrades and new products, said to produce a 'Big Bang,' but when?

From Mike Vizard's email newsletter on internet tech (IT), What's Hot Now (Apr27,2k7), where the lead note is "Big Bang Theory suggests that MicroSoft is about to explode," I found my way to Joe Wilcox writing on "Microsoft's 'Big Bang' Is When?" (Apr26,2k7) in eWeek's MicroSoft Watch. Wilcox:

Last night's release of Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 is a monumental event for Microsoft, much bigger than the launch [earlier] of Windows Vista [MS's new operating system]. How big may depend on when Microsoft releases Vista Service Pack 1.

Windows Server is the nucleus of Microsoft's enterprise strategy, around which all other products—-even Windows Client—-revolve. Longhorn's eventual release, which Microsoft claims will be later this year, will likely set off major software upgrades, including Office 2007 and Windows Vista.

And thus challenge MS's wannabe competitors as never before, especially to the extent the new products are hack-proof. Hmmmm.

Laura DiDio, a Yankee Group research fellow, described the expected phenomenon as the "Big Bang." Other analyst firms' projections of Windows Vista upgrades, including Gartner, synch well with the Big Bang theory.

Technics > IT > Microsoft, by Technowlb

Since few of these prodcuts and their brandnames suggest anything directly familiar to me (I'm quite Apple / Macintosh / iMac OSX 3.9 (Panther) oriented in regard to my PC IT preferences), I have to remind myself that MS products still command about 80% of the software market for personal computers, while my own favourites are rah-rah-ed by Mac fans for achieving a mere 6% of PC market penetration--with the radical exceptions of iTunes Music Store and iPod which MS failed to displace from their ballooning dominance. And not just MS has been bested on this terrain: so has Sony fallen by the wayside, as far as I can tell. Now, Amazon has announced it will have a go at the digital-music IT retail market in direct competition with iTunes Music Store. I also noticed somewhere today (try this instead) that the non-digital recorded-music sales are quite stagnant; there's a downside to that as far as the musical experience is concerned.

But back to MicroSoft's banging its own big drum, skipping all too many beats these days.

Gartner expects a first major round of Vista deployments to start [Oct-Dec 2k7], with most businesses waiting until [May-Jun 2k8]. The timing is also right for Windows Server Longhorn's release and potential pull on Windows client upgrades. Many IT organizations are willing to wait for Longhorn Server as to coordinate multiple infrastructure upgrades around the same time, DiDio said.

When isn't When

But there is a wrinkle—-uncertainty which Microsoft has created. Back in November, Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice president for server and tools, told eWeek that Windows Server Longhorn and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 would ship "simultaneously." Such a plan would be quite sensible, as, according to Muglia, "it is one source-code base" for both products. Since then, Microsoft has backed away from this coordinated release commitment.

So much ink has been spilled and keys tapped on the subject of MS's hegemony in the personal computer market that I couldn't add anything really new here. But I can say something from the standpoint of the h+ value I place on a pluralist market, where there are at least a handful of truly competing major corporations. And, where the trend toward open-source and interoperablity is much stronger than now. I'd like to see MicroSoft give way in its near-control of IT software generally, and also see Apple give way in its almost-monopoly in music IT. Of course, by "give way" I don't mean to suggest that either give anything. I'm just fantasizing how I'd like to see the market tumble things out in this cultural zone of life, to everyone's betterment hopefully.