Downgrading Windows 8 to Windows 7

Now that you have lashed out and purchased that new PC in the Black Friday sales you find that it has the new Windows 8 and you are not happy. Why did Microsoft do this? What were they thinking?

What's more there seem to be no "downgrade rights" as there were with previous versions of Windows. Even if you get a copy of Windows 7 your UEFI/BIOS will likely not let you install it as a replacement operating system.

I explain how to do this in detail on my website tempusfugit.ca

There is currently a lot of misinformation regarding UEFI and Secure Boot. Whether or not alternative operating systems such as Linux will be "locked-out" from running on "Windows 8 hardware".

What's on my desktop

or rather what icons, if any, do I have on my screen?

Having thought about my computer and tablet usage I have concluded why I do not like Windows 8. My Windows 7 computers have only the recycle bin icon on them. I would rather see the background that I have selected than links to programs that are easily accessible from a menu system.

This is probably why I would have no problem in using a Mac and OSX and I prefer the Android screens to that of iOS.

Windows 8 Acivator on Softpedia

Does anyone know if this is for real:

1st order obfuscation

or making it more difficult for copyright holders to track you.

When discussing whether we need to take additional steps to obscure our downloads when we move to the UK, the subject of whether we need to maintain the subscription to our current VPN.

It was decided that we probably need to as the principle is that the owners of the intellectual property are more likely to "go after" those that have not taken any additional steps to hide their IP address when downloading torrents and other media from the Internet. We will not need a VPN to access and download BBC iPlayer programs.

Getting a private real estate listing in the Google index

I have an observation about an attempt in getting a page to be found by a Google search.

I have noted in the past how it is almost impossible to get a real estate listing to show up in a Google search. At the time I thought it was mainly due to the proliferation of real estate sites and commonality of the search terms that are used on such sites. For example, it is more than likely that a real estate company has sold a property on your street and the number of your house is going to turn up all over the Web.

It seems that this is even more sinister. I made a page that has an address for a property that I know has not been offered by any real estate company. I know that the page has been spidered as I have seen GoogleBot access it in my server logs. However, the page is not in the Goggle index even if specific search terms are searched for, ones that I know that are unique to my page.

There must be a process that excludes the page from the Google index. It is something that over-rides the uniqueness of the page content.

Usage of a tablet

Having owned a number of tablets I think it is time to review what I actually use them for.

We own the original iPad and the "New iPad" (iPad 3). I have purchased and returned an Asus Transformer TF101 and a Transformer Prime TF201 (with a keyboard). While I am satisfied that the Android operating system is adequate for tablet use I cannot see a compelling reason to switch from iOS. The ability to play media without conversion is convenient and means that I didn't have to use iTunes to transfer video files to the tablet.

I thought by this time I would have seen a Microsoft Surface so that I could compare the performance and features with what I have used to date. I have yet to see any RT device in a retail store although I understand that BestBuy are carrying the Asus Iconia W510, the Asus Vivo TF600T and the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro (of various models). Only the Vivo is an RT device and I feel that BB do a poor job of explaining the difference between RT and Pro versions of Windows 8.

I see no reason to purchase a Windows 8 tablet, not that I have seen them for sale in retail stores, only online from Microsoft.

There is much debate on whether a tablet can be used for "creative" work. In my mind this is missing the point of the tablet format. Many rationalize the purchase of a tablet in that they can do all they can on a laptop, you can't! If you need the functionality of a laptop then get a laptop, it will be cheaper. A tablet is always going to be a compromise and if you want to type efficiently then you are going to need a keyboard. This is not to day that a tablet cannot be used in this way as we use an iPad with a Logitech keyboard cover quite effectively and have just returned from a 2 week trip having left the laptop at home. However when it comes to transferring media to a tablet a laptop or other full computer is needed.

I also run a program editor and administer a website and I have tried to use a tablet for this and have given up due the fact that there were programs I just couldn't run and I was constantly hunting and pecking around on the touch screen.

AMD C-70 Specifications

The successor to the C-60

Kernel-based APU Zacate (Brazos 1.0 platform) and comprises two bobcat cores running at 1GHz (1333MHz Turbo Mode), AMD Radeon graphics with 80 shader processors VLIW5 running at 276MHz (400MHz in Turbo mode) and integrated memory controller single channel DDR3-1066. This APU has a TDP of 9W, interestingly their specifications are very similar to the AMD C-60 APU, although it may be a typing error in the AMD site.

Source 

Is Windows 8 an "Upgrade"?

The supporters of Microsoft are saying that Windows  is a worthwhile upgrade for those currently using XP or Windows 7. I take issue with that and would suggest that it is just hype to get you to purchase "new product".

I would agree that it is probably an upgrade from XP as it is basically Windows 7 with a new coat. However, are there any performance benefits in upgrading from 7?

I was reading 8 reasons to Upgrade on Marc Saltzman's website (curiously not accessible when I started writing this), I will take his points one by one.

1. It is cheap.

2. It is the safest Windows yet - MS have always said this. All they seem to have done is to build in their own Anti-Malware program that was available for free for Windows 7 and called it Windows Defender.

3. Live Tiles are seen to be something that you would want. This could be a USP for the "Touch Interface" and make the Home screen different from that of the iPad. They tried this before with "Gadgets" on Vista and 7 but users where unimpressed then.

4. Massive Storage - well, "the Cloud" and "Drive" are available for Windows 7 so I don't see this as a reason to upgrade.

5. Easy to customize - we have to see what the critics say about this one

6. Okay, okay ...... this post was in draft for too long. I lost interest in the subject.

The points above are not in the order that Marc had them and I am not sure if I had them all covered. I think the other points were to do with X-Box integration and other irrelevant things.

Where is Windows 8?

Having been in Tokyo during the launch of Windows 7 and in Hong Kong for Windows 8 their has been a marked difference in what was seen in the stores.

For Windows 7 there were posters all over Akihabara and other stores in Japan and around the world, but with 8, no such promotion.

Even if you look at the pages of Best Buy they only have a single Windows 8 RT device for sale. Where is the Surface RT?

Microsoft said that they were going to release the Surface with Windows Pro until next month so that is no surprise, but I thought that they would have had at least some demo models of the RT for prospective purchasers of the device to play with. Perhaps there is a reason that this is not the case? I have also failed to see any critical reviews of the Surface - this could be that I am on vacation and have not been following the tech-press to the same degree.

Another observation for Hong Kong, there is a noticeable presence of the Apple iPhone 5, both in the stores and on the streets. Well over 50% of subway users can be seen with their noses pinned to their smartphones, I have yet to see a single poster for Windows 8.

On the cellular front maybe the rest of the world needs to take the lead from Hong Kong's MTR and extend their w/l networks to their complete systems, underground and all!