Monday, September 22, 2014

Keeping In Touch With The Microsoft Outlook Updates

If you use Outlook email client, you know it serves as a single channel to access all your emails. Sending and receiving emails is a major part of our job and hence, it is crucial to maintain and use Outlook email client to the best of our needs. The best way to do so is to install all the updates that come along the way. To know which updates are necessary, contact our Microsoft tech support team.

In theory, the process is easy. You regularly check for any possible updates, and then download and install them, when they are available. Although you might be tempted to cancel certain updates, for example, a language update that lets you support an unwanted language, it is better to leave it as it is

The best solution is to install any and every update that comes along your way. Moreover, it shortens the time needed by eliminating the need to evaluate each update and select the most appropriate one. Hence, it would be better to check for updates once a week, preferably on Thursday or Friday to keep in tune with the official update cycle. The standard update cycle is normally update release once a month. However, you do not want to delay updating any important security patches that may be sporadically released by Microsoft.

This suggestion should be followed only for home systems or office workstations that do not have their own update policy. Your company might have its own update guidelines, in which case it is better to follow them.

There is some notion that only the original program will run the fastest and any further updates to it will only slow it down further. However, this notion is false, since you will have a more efficient program that does not have junk mail, if you maintain frequent updates. Frequent improvements in the junk mail filter help your inbox remain clutter-free the entire time.

Here is how you update:
  • Go to Microsoft Office Downloads home page using your preferred web browser.
  • Select the link that automatically scans your computer and figures out, which updates are necessary.
  • Click to select the updates you want and then download them.
  • Install the updates and close the browser. Restart your PC, if you need to.
If you follow the instructions, you will be able to install any updates as they come. Contact our Microsoft tech support, if you need further assistance.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Chrome Browser Does Away With Windows Technology

Search mogul Google has already announced plans to ditch the Windows technology used in Chrome browser, which mainly displays fonts on web pages. They revealed this while discussing some of the new changes in version 37 of Chrome, which reached the Beta build channel at the time. The preview, according to them, uses the DirectWrite technology from Microsoft instead of the old format.

The DirectWrite technology API was first introduced with Windows 7, the penultimate operating system that released in 2009. Microsoft then back-ported DirectWrite to Windows Vista SP2, concurrently with a platform update for Vista. But what posed a problem is that Windows XP – which comprises a fourth of the operating systems run on computers around the world – did not support DirectWrite.

Before switching over to DirectWrite, Google’s Chrome browser employed the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) from Microsoft, which has been a central part of Windows ever since in came out in 1985. The company had been working on it at least two years prior to that. The previous edition of Chrome, version 36, still uses the GDI to render text on web pages.

The reason of the great lag between the appearance of DirectWrite and its implementation in Chrome was that the latter required intensive relining and streamlining of the browser’s font renderer. Most of the problems came from the sandboxing, which is meant to run untested programs with a controlled set of resources. Doing this to the rendering engine stretched the process out until February this year, when the company announced they had finally integrated DirectWrite into Chrome.

This technology was one of the main factors in Microsoft’s refusal to add the popular Windows XP operating system to the roster of those with Windows support for IE 9. Incidentally, the tech giant was the first browser manufacturer to ditch support for Windows XP.

DirectWrite is a technology that is used by the ClearType Text Tuner applet inside the control panel in Windows 7, and by the XPS viewer application. It supports fonts that conform to OpenType specification version 1.5, which includes fonts with TrueType and CFF outlines. So if the extension of a font is TTF, OTF or TTC, DirectWrite supports it. Bitmap and vector files are still not supported, and neither are the Adobe Type 1.PFM and .PFB fonts.

That was some information on the new technology used in Chrome version 37 for Windows. For help with your browser issues, call our Windows support number.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Windows 7 Support To End By 2015

Microsoft has warned its customers that the end of support for the Windows 7 operating system is soon coming, the same way it came for the Windows XP operating system earlier this year. Microsoft will be ending free mainstream support for the Windows 7 OS on Jan 13, 2015, but the users of Windows 7 will be getting security updates until 2020. This move will largely affect the consumers. Businesses that pay for the extended Windows 7 support will be supported for another five years until Jan 14, 2020.

This is very much important as many businesses are right now in the process of upgrading their old Windows XP computers but they are moving to Windows 7, not to Windows 8. There are some speculations that given the popularity of the Windows 7 OS, Microsoft may change its mind as the date nears and may continue to support Windows 7 a bit longer as they had done for the Windows XP OS. Microsoft had supported the Windows XP operating system for about 13 years. This was confirmed after contacting the Microsoft support team.

It seems like Microsoft will not extend the support date this time. Windows 8 OS includes a full version of Windows 7, which is called as Desktop mode. With Windows 8.1, it is possible to run a Windows 8 computer in Desktop mode and almost avoid the new and confusing Windows 8 part of the operating system. Microsoft really has to nudge users into buying Windows 8 computers. More Windows 8 computers means that more developers will wish to develop software for the Windows 8. This will make more and more users want to buy the OS.

Windows 7 operating system has been a great source of income for Microsoft Corporation. This operating system has a very good market share even now and it is much liked by its users, unlike the Windows 8 OS. Let us hope that Microsoft will provide a period of extended support for the Windows 7 operating system, after the end of mainstream support.

By the way, Microsoft has also set an end of support for the Windows 8 OS also. The end of mainstream support date for the Windows 8 Os is Jan 9, 2018. After this date, Windows 8 may enter the extended support period. This can be considered as another hint that Microsoft may have its next version of Windows in 2015, code named Threshold. If you wish to know more on this news, you can contact our Microsoft support number.