Microsoft Warns of End of Windows Support

Windows 2000 fans, beware. Microsoft won't be supporting your favorite OS much longer.

More to the point, though, Redmond reminded users this week that extended support for XP Service Pack 2 (and Windows 2000) will end in July. So, it's Windows 7 within the next seven months or so, or you're on your own.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20093 comments


Office 2010 Migration Tool Betas Out

We at RCPU still haven't found all the buttons on the Office 2007 ribbon, but for those of you who are just itching to get to 2010, knock yourselves out.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 09, 20090 comments


Google Goes Real-Time

Oh, fantastic. Now there'll be no escaping Twitter (where you can follow RCPU here). Google has gone real-time in search, which means Tweets will start popping up on standard Google search pages.

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Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20091 comments


Package of Patches Coming

Just in time for the holidays. It's a six pack from Microsoft, but not the fun kind. In fact, Redmond is sending six patches, three critical and three important, for December.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20090 comments


Regulators Looking into Data Privacy

Worried that Google or some retailer has too much of your personal information? So is your hard(ly) working federal government, which is looking into consumer data privacy.    

Posted by Lee Pender on December 07, 20090 comments


Microsoft Lays Out Bing Maps

Microsoft has been trying to spiff up its David to Google's Goliath, and the latest wrinkle (among others) is an ever-popular application: maps.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20090 comments


Microsoft, EU Supposedly Finishing Browser Deal

Microsoft's long, international nightmare could soon be more or less over, as the company is reportedly finishing up plans for its "browser ballot screen" that will appear in versions of Windows sold in Europe. Apparently, Opera wanted some fairly subtle changes to the plan...and got them.

Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20090 comments


Tech Data To Buy Back Shares

We at RCPU have been extremely remiss about running reader e-mail, which we've let back up to the point at which a bunch of really good e-mails are now too old to run. We're sorry about that, but we're going to get back to putting your thoughts in this space soon. So, if you have anything you'd like to send our way, shoot it to the usual address: [email protected].

To be perfectly honest, we're getting into a slow time of year for news, and your editor is still busy with tasks outside of RCPU. So, for today, we're going to go with a pure channel play (which we really should do more often) and tell you that mega-distributor Tech Data is buying back $100 million worth of stock.

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Posted by Lee Pender on December 04, 20091 comments


Intel, Acer Moving Netbooks Away from Windows

Netbooks, the beloved (by your editor) little machines that haven't quite penetrated the enterprise but still sell in big numbers, have fallen under the market share spell of Windows for the most part. But a couple of companies are nudging them in a different direction.

Intel's new SDK for its Atom processer points developers pretty strongly in the direction of Moblin, Intel's own Linux-based operating system. And netbook maker Acer is going to start (gasp!) putting Google's Chrome OS on netbooks. Just a couple of little things to look out for with these little devices, Microsoft partners.  

Posted by Lee Pender on December 03, 20091 comments


Microsoft Hopes for Windows 7 PC Bump

The year 2009 has been one of the more forgettable we've experienced in...well, quite a while, anyway. And while it's hard to tell whether the economy is recovering (ask a stockbroker and somebody who's out of work, and you'll likely get two very different answers), glimmers of hope for 2010 are starting to show through the thick financial clouds that have been over us for close to two years now.

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Posted by Lee Pender on December 03, 20091 comments


Google Chrome Market Share Surges

OK, so Google Chrome has 3.9 percent market share, according to Net Applications. No big deal, right? Well, it kind of is, considering the fairly new browser apparently had only 0.4 percent market share at the beginning of November. As for IE, its current share is its lowest ever -- although it's still at almost 64 percent.

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Posted by Lee Pender on December 03, 20090 comments


Microsoft Cloud Patent Filing Meets Resistance

Redmond's attempt to patent the process by which companies move data between clouds isn't terribly popular with vendor Vordel, which provides a "broker" service that...moves data between clouds.

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Posted by Lee Pender on December 02, 20090 comments