Microsoft has been banging the Windows 10 patch drum almost daily as it prepares for Wednesday’s launch.

In the last seven days, Microsoft has pushed four security updates to build 10240, the final served to members of Windows Insider before the July 29 release. Insider is the beta program Microsoft’s run since October 2014 for the new OS.

Three of the four — delivered on July 23, 24 and 25 in separate updates — offered identical descriptions of their contents.
Continue reading Microsoft pours out the patches as Windows 10 nears release. →

Microsoft has pushed out a few more updates to Windows 10 as it rushes to prep its new OS for launch next Wednesday.

On Thursday, Gabe Aul, the engineering general manager for Microsoft’s operating systems group, tweeted: “Another update now available on Windows Update for Windows 10 PC build 10240.” Build 10240 is the latest and final build for Windows 10 before the official launch. As such, Microsoft has been focused on pushing out updates for that build to ensure that it’s as solid as possible.

The two updates released late Thursday include a security update with the Microsoft Knowledge Base number of KB3074679 and a new driver for Intel HD graphics. The security update description says little other than the generic: “A security issue that been identified in a Microsoft product that could affect your system.” The one for Intel HD graphics updates the driver for PCs with Intel’s integrated graphics processor. I also caught an update for Windows Defender, Microsoft’s built-in antimalware software, which is updated on a regular basis with new definition files.
Continue reading Microsoft rolls out more Windows 10 updates as July 29 launch looms. →

I’ve now been using Windows 10 for a month, and though it’s still just an early version with lots of rough edges, I’m convinced that it’s going to be a solid desktop operating system for the world’s billion-odd mouse-and-keyboard users — when they finally decide to upgrade from Windows 7 or XP, anyway. It has been slowly dawning on me, however, that Windows 10 is a lost cause; even in a best-case scenario where Microsoft delivers the finest desktop OS to ever grace humankind, there’s no getting around the found that Windows 10 is an attempt to revivify a slowly dying beast. While there’s always a chance that Windows 10 triggers some kind of renaissance, it’s far more likely that it will be squished into ignominious oblivion by the stumbling, apathetic, and commoditized beast that the desktop PC has become. Continue reading Windows 10 is great – but it won’t stop the PC from dying and taking Microsoft with it. →

Microsoft on Monday suspended delivery of new preview builds of Windows 10, saying that it was “very close” to wrapping up the operating system.

“We’re suspending the availability of Windows 10 builds briefly while we prepare for [using the official roll-out process], and the next build that we flight to you will be delivered using the production channels,” said Gabriel Aul, engineering general manager for Microsoft’s OS group, in a revised blog yesterday. “We’re very close to our public release and we’re working very hard to get everything just right.”

Aul promised that the suspension would be short, but that disk images — large files in .iso format that testers can use to do a “clean” install of the OS — would also be deferred. “We really need Insiders to be using, stressing, and validating our distribution and upgrade processes,” Aul said in explaining the .iso pause.
Continue reading Microsoft suspends Windows 10 previews as it nears official launch. →

Windows 10 can’t get here soon enough. We’ve been hearing about the downturn in the PC market for years, and things haven’t gotten any better in recent quarters. With Windows 10 less than three weeks away, IDC has released its PC sales figures for Q2 showing that the industry witnessed a year-over-year decline 11.8 percent to 66.1 million units.

“Although the second quarter decline in PC shipments was significant, and slightly more than expected, the overall trend fits with expectations,” said IDC’s Loren Loverde. “We continue to expect low to mid-single digit declines in volume during the second half of the year with volume stabilizing in future years.”

Looking at overall global sales, Lenovo was the market leader with 20.3 percent of the PC market. HP, Dell, Apple, and Acer rounded out the top 5 with 18.5 percent, 14.5 percent, 7.8 percent, and 6.6 percent respectively. When looking solely at the U.S market, the positions jumble up quite a bit with HP taking the top spot with a 26 percent share. Dell secured second place with 23.9 percent, while Apple, Lenovo, and Toshiba rounded out the top 5.
Continue reading Global PC Market Contracts Nearly 12 Percent Ahead Of Windows 10 Launch. →

Microsoft gave early testers of Windows 10 a little surprise in the run-up to the Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. by releasing a yet another new build of its upcoming operating system to the public.

Build 10162 is the third build Microsoft has released in one week — a record for the company during its public beta testing — and comes just a day and a half after the company released its predecessor, build 10159.

The release only features bug fixes and other minor improvements, which is hardly a surprise, since Windows 10 will begin rolling out to customers later this month. While there aren’t any new capabilities included in this build, it’s supposed to feature “better reliability, performance, battery life, and compatibility than any Windows 10 Insider Preview build so far.”

Continue reading Third build of Windows 10 in one week a sign of OS stability. →