Thinking Of Upgrading Your Computer To Windows 8? Don't (MSFT)

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Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- I’ve made a lot of computer blunders over the years. The biggest was taking a perfectly well- functioning Sony Vaio and upgrading it from Windows XP to Windows Vista, which left it so crash-prone as to be all but useless.

So please believe me when I offer this word of advice on installing Microsoft’s shiny new Windows 8 operating system:

Don’t.

Windows 8 is far from the disaster Vista was. But unless you have a very recent personal computer with a touch screen, there are few benefits -- and some significant drawbacks in terms of learning curve and usability -- to upgrading from Windows 7.

Microsoft is doing its best to make the process attractive. Buyers of Windows 7 PCs between June 2, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013, can upgrade for $15, while owners of older computers can download a copy from Microsoft’s online store for $40.

I decided to go old school, buying the traditional boxed DVD of Windows 8 Pro at the neighborhood Staples for $70. My guinea-pig machine was one I use specifically for testing software and services, a three-year-old Hewlett-Packard Pavilion desktop purchased at Costco -- just the sort of thing many families might have at home.

Bumpy Path

I began the upgrade at 9:45 a.m. and finished it an hour and 37 minutes later, not counting another 15 minutes or so spent solving a couple of lingering issues. The process wasn’t entirely smooth.

Most of the time was spent staring at the screen, which was populated by various all-but-indistinguishable status updates: “getting devices ready,” “getting ready,” “while we’re getting things ready,” and finally, more than an hour into the process, “we’re getting your PC ready.” Wait, what have you been doing up to now?

The final message was accompanied by “this will take a few minutes.” No kidding.

Theoretically, I could have just started the process and walked away. But as it turned out, that would have been a mistake.

Shortly after I began, the installer mysteriously quit and returned me to the Windows 7 desktop with no explanation. I restarted the process, which at least picked up where it had left off.

Manual Intervention

Then, more than an hour into the effort, the Pavilion’s hardware-diagnostic program prevented a required restart of Windows until I manually intervened. Had I not been sitting in front of the screen monitoring developments, it would have taken even longer before I was up and running.

Finally, upgrade complete, I rebooted into the new Windows 8 Start screen. I was greeted with its colorful tiles -- and an error message that read “.Net 3.5 Client Profile Runtime has stopped working.” When I tried to summon Microsoft’s online help service for a solution, I discovered my PC no longer had Internet access, thanks to an incompatibility with the version of Symantec’s Norton Firewall software I was using. (Most of my other existing programs, though, seemed to run fine with the new operating system.)

Once I sorted out those issues, I noticed an immediate benefit. Prior to the upgrade, it took the Pavilion about 2-1/2 minutes to boot from a cold start. Windows 8, though, was much faster: about 50 seconds.

The upgrade also gave me tiles to access Microsoft’s new Xbox Music service and a not-yet-very-populated app store for programs written for the new interface.

 

Touch Screens

 

The other Start-screen tiles were filled with self-updating information from my social networks, calendar and other applications. While I was able to navigate through them using the mouse, it’s clear the interface is really aimed at users with touch screens.

Those are likely to be standard equipment on most new Windows PCs, including the new Windows tablets from manufacturers including, for the first time, Microsoft itself. But the millions of individuals and businesses with older, mouse-driven systems -- and even many with laptops that have a touchpad but no touch screen -- may find themselves needing to memorize keyboard shortcuts for many common tasks, a throwback to earlier days of computing.

While there’s still a Windows 7-like desktop, it’s been demoted: You launch it from one of the tiles on the Start screen. And missing from the desktop is the familiar button that would allow you to shut down or restart the PC. Instead, you’re expected to summon what Microsoft calls “charms” -- a set of buttons running down the side of the screen -- choose Settings and power down from there.

 

Summoning Charms

 

That’s fine for touch screens and for Windows tablets, which -- like Apple’s iPad -- you shouldn’t have to power down or reboot very often. But it’s clumsy for users of more traditional PCs, who will have to learn just where to move the cursor on the screen to bring up the charms.

Further, there’s no option to boot directly into the desktop environment, or restore the Start menu. And, adding to the sense of schizophrenia, Windows 8 has two separate versions of the Internet Explorer web browser, one written in the new style, the other a more traditional one that shows up when you’re working on the desktop.

For buyers of new computers, Windows 8 will be inescapable, and may make sense for the new generation of hardware it’s spawning. But if you don’t already have something close to the latest and greatest PC and you’re reasonably happy with Windows 7, my guidance is simple:

Skip it.

(Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

--Editors: Zinta Lundborg, Jeremy Gerard.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rich Jaroslovsky in San Francisco at rjaroslovsky@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.

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Comcast Uglying Up Historic Georgetown With Big Metal Boxes

Not since little Regan MacNeil left the steps of Georgetown littered with bodies have the people of this quaint, historic Washington, D.C., neighborhood been so horrified. But this time it’s not possessed children, it’s Comcast.

“This business is coming into our community and just making an aesthetic wreck of what we try to preserve in the historic district,” said Advisory … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/07/comcast-uglying-up-historic-georgetown-with-big-gray-boxes/

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Five Stocks Boasting Better Charts Including RIM, First Solar

SPOTTED: A Mystery Dubai Buyer Getd A $1.2 Million Pagani That's Not On Sale Yet

Deliveries of the $1.2 million Pagani Huayra, which AutoBlog called "the most lovingly built exotic on Earth," are set to start in April 2013.

But Jesse J Ode, who owns the site Tech Circle dxb, spotted a Huayra being delivered to a resident of the Dubai tower next to his own. In an e-mail, Ode explained he did not want to reveal the new owner's identity due to privacy laws.

Leaving us wondering: Who has enough pull to get one of the world's most expensive cars before deliveries are scheduled to begin?

Have you spotted a rare or unusual way of getting around in your travels? Did you take a photo? Do you like sharing? Let me know via e-mail: adavies@businessinsider.com or on Twitter@adavies47.

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SEE MORE: Maserati Just Revealed Its Most Beautiful Quattroporte Ever

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CHART OF THE DAY: Why Global Investors Love The US Stock Market

Gerard Minack, Morgan Stanley's head of developed market strategy, created this chart to show how 2013 earnings expectations for Australia's stock market — the S&P/ASX 200 — have deteriorated through out the year.  Australia's economy is largely driven by a mining industry, which has been supplying the emerging markets.  Those emerging markets have slowed significantly.

It's worth noting, however, that the Nasdaq has had net upward EPS revisions.  And S&P 500 EPS revisions have been revised down only modestly.

The lack of earnings expectations volatility is certainly welcome by investors.

Below is the chart from Minack.

  • DM EX-US: Developed Markets excluding the US
  • MSCI EM: Emerging Markets
  • EURO STOXX: Europe

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MOSSBERG: Google's New Flagship Phone Is A Good Value, But That's About it (GOOG)

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Google is going to start selling another Nexus phone, the Nexus 4 by LG, on its Web site next week.

Nexus phones, designed with Google's help and built by third party manufacturers, are supposed to represent the very best that Google's Android operating system has to offer.

Star gadget reviewer Walt Mossberg got his hands on a Nexus, and put out a review last night.

Overall, he describes the Nexus 4 as a good value that won't knock your socks off.

He likes:

  • It's inexpensive.
  • Curved edges make it comfortable to hold.
  • The camera takes sharp, vivid photos.
  • The battery lasts a full workday.
  • Call quality.
  • Improved auto-correction for typing.

He doesn't like:

  • No LTE.
  • Only 16GB of storage.
  • 360-degree photos don't take very well.
  • No memory upgrade slot.
  • Weak external speaker.
  • Richer search results on iPhone.
  • Doesn't work on all carriers.

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Joining Together Credit Card Bills The Correct Way

Bringing together consumer debt comes into play a new range of shapes and forms. Absolute confidence the things your overall pacificdebt.com|pacificdebt consolidation|pacificdebt|pacificdebt loansoverall credit score is therefore how very good involving credit debt you have, you’ll be able to obtain a lending product which can suit your specifications. The following are some frequent strategies that [...]

The post Joining Together Credit Card Bills The Correct Way appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/27/joining-together-credit-card-bills-the-correct-way/

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Amazon Testing Monthly Prime Membership, Just in Time for the Holidays

--> Amazon PrimeAmazon (AMZN) quietly made a big change to its Prime service this week, allowing some customers to subscribe on a monthly basis rather than committing to a full year.

The service, which includes free two-day shipping and free streaming of movies and TV shows in Amazon's library, normally costs $79 for a year's commitment. The monthly option will cost $7.99, which comes to $96 annually.

But paying a premium of $1.50 a month is sure to appeal to customers who don't necessarily want to commit to a full year of the service. And the $7.99 pricing puts it on even footing with competing streaming services Netflix (NFLX) and Hulu Plus -- both of which have more robust streaming libraries than Amazon, but can't offer benefits like free Amazon shipping.

The move is being seen in many quarters as an attempt by Amazon to compete more directly in the streaming market. And one analyst suggested today that the change makes it less likely that Amazon will attempt to acquire Netflix, which looked like a possibility last week.

But from a consumer perspective, the biggest benefit to the monthly plan is that it allows customers to take advantage of Prime shipping during the holiday season.

Until Amazon sweetened the pot last year by introducing video streaming and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, Prime mainly appealed to customers who made frequent purchases on Amazon; the average shopper, meanwhile, likely didn't save enough on shipping over the course of a year to justify the $79 price tag. But consumers are going to be making much more frequent purchases over the next couple of months, and if you plan to do a lot of your gift shopping on Amazon it might make sense to get Prime for a month or two. If you make three or four purchases in December and get free shipping through Prime on each one, then the $7.99 fee pays for itself. And keep in mind that Prime also offers one-day shipping for $3.99, which is good for those last-minute purchases.

For now the monthly option is in a testing phase; the offer only appeared on half the computers we checked, and Amazon wouldn't confirm the timing of a wider rollout. It's also unclear whether the monthly plan would replace or complement the annual option. But if you're one of the lucky ones who are able to get a crack at the monthly membership, you should consider getting it for the holidays.

Just don't forget to cancel your membership once the holidays are over -- unless, of course, you decide you want to keep it year-round.

Matt Brownell is the consumer and retail reporter for DailyFinance. You can reach him at Matt.Brownell@teamaol.com, and follow him on Twitter at @Brownellorama.


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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/11/06/amazon-testing-monthly-prime-membership-just-in-time-for-the-ho/

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