I installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview today and tested it out on my MacBook Pro via Parallels. If you own Parallels you can easily do the same by creating a new machine in the Parallels wizard. It includes the Windows 8 Consumer Preview as one of the optional operating systems.

After using the consumer preview of Microsoft’s new operating system, I decided that it really needs some work before I’d willingly upgrade. Based on how things went last time around with the public betas of Windows 7, I’m not going to hold my breath. We likely won’t see much change in the final version coming later this year.

With hope, I offer 8 things that Microsoft needs to fix in Windows 8.

Scrolling Vertically on a Mouse Wheel Moves the UI Horizontally

The new Metro UI scrolls horizontally. The more apps you load the longer it takes to get from the first to the last tile. If you use a trackpad on a notebook, then swipe horizontally and your screen moves to show apps to the right.

I hate trackpads so I plug in a mouse with a scroll wheel. It scrolls vertically. The Metro UI will scroll horizontally while I scroll my wheel vertically, but it feels wrong.

Accessing the Corner Popups

8 Things I Hate About Windows 8 is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Beginning May 20, students going back to school can get a steal on an Xbox 360 when they buy a qualifying Windows PC for $699 or more. I say a steal because, you’ll feel like your stealing since the 4GB Xbox 360 is free.

That’s right! Get a free Xbox 360 with a band new PC for back-to-school.

Microsoft offered his promotion last year and it they will repeat the offer this year. In the United States you must buy a $699 PC, while in Canada you’ll get a free Xbox with a $599 Windows PC.

Outlets offering the deal in the United States include the following:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Fry’s Electronics
• HP
• Microsoft Stores
• NewEgg

Canadian buyers can shop at:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Future Shop
• Staples
• The Source

Many students will either start or return to college this summer and fall. A new notebook and an Xbox 360 will come in handy.

Use the computer for all those papers and projects. Get on the Xbox to play some games or use one of the many video apps, like Netflix or Hulu to watch TV and movies over the campus network. You can hook them up and play movies, videos, music and slide shows streamed from your computer. Maybe your dorm room will serve as the hub of fun and entertainment on your floor.

You’ll have to wait tilt he 20th to see which computers qualify for the deal at the various sites. The HP Envy Sleekbook 4t-1000 might offer a great option at $699.99 from HP directly. Its one of those new and thin 14″ models that offers some decent specs in a smaller form factor. Since you have the Xbox for gaming, you don’t necessarily need a powerhouse machine to carry to class and work on the papers you’ll write in the library.

The Toshiba Portege Ultrabook also might quality at $799.99 over at Best Buy. It offers a 13.3 display along with a 128GB SSD. it should provide enough battery life to get through your day and enough power for your basic student activities.

If you’re not satisfied with just Xbox gaming, then Dell’s Alienware M14x Gaming Laptop might show up on the list at nearly $1100. They build these for power with Core i5 or i7 processors at least 6GB of RAM. You also get at least 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with Optimus graphics powering a 14″ display. If you’re wiling to pay extra you can get 1600×900 resolution display. Dell recently refreshed the processor on these to offer the latest greatest.

You’ll find plenty of options at the above retailers, so check with them Sunday to see what you can get. For further details see the Windows Team Blog.

Students Get a Free Xbox 360 with $699 Notebook Purchase is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft just patched their Word 2003 and 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2012 for Mac to fix what they called “extremely important issues”.

These security patches will bring your version of Office for Mac 2008 to 12.3.3 or Office for Mac 2011 to 14.2.2.

Microsoft explained that the security flaw might allow people to execute code remotely to affect your Mac. If you care to see all the details you can learn about them on a Microsoft Technet security bulletin (link to bulletin for Word 2003 and 2007; see this bulletin for Excel 2003 and 2007) quoted below:

The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted RTF file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

They call this update critical, meaning you need to apply it as soon as you can. You can download the files yourself from Microsoft or use the built-in update feature accessed from the Help menu in Office for Mac or Microsoft’s update feature built into Windows Update on a Windows PC.

For those running a Windows PC, while you’re in Windows Update, get the other security patches available. Microsoft addressed a total of 23 flaws in Windows various operating systems and software in this month’s bundle of fixes.

While many of these security updates fix obscure vulnerabilities that you might never deal with in the wild, it’s always a good idea to apply critical security patches like these on all of your software. It keeps your machine clean and avoids infecting other people’s systems.

Also, spammers notoriously use vulnerable systems as spam bots, machines used to send out spam on the behalf of the spammer without the user ever knowing it’s happening. The only symptom might be a slightly slowed Internet connection or system. Even then you won’t notice the slowdown since they often tell the systems to send out the messages late in the evening when you’re not sitting at the computer.

Microsoft Updates Office for Windows and Mac with Important Security Fixes is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Not everyone gets to know the exact date they’re going to die and most people don’t want to know. But millions of computers worldwide are staring a kind of death right in the face. In just over two years Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP. On April 8, 2014, to be exact.

That doesn’t mean that every XP computer will shut down, give up the ghost, and crawl into the grave. It does mean that there will be no more updates, bug fixes, security patches, or anything of that sort. XP computers will be on their own.

Of course, Microsoft only promises 5 years of support for consumer versions of the OS and 5 extra years for businesses. As Ed Bott lays out here, that’s how things have worked for a long time. Which would normally mean that Windows Vista would reach the end of its mainstream support line in April of this year.

Wow… has it really been just five years since Microsoft unleashed the horror that is Vista upon an unsuspecting world? How time does fly.

At any rate, Microsoft is bending their own rules and extending the end of life for XP, Vista and Windows 7 a little bit longer than normal. XP is over 10 years old at this point, but there are still business and mainstream users clinging to it after seeing everyone else get burned by Vista, which then engendered a distrust of Windows 7. Maybe that’s why the company quietly went ahead with the extension. They have a lot of bridges to mend.

Vista support ends in 2017 and Windows 7 support ends in 2020. By then maybe everyone will be brave enough to start thinking about giving Windows 8 a try.

Windows XP Will Reach Its End Of Life In April of 2014, Vista In 2017 is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

The Microsoft Windows 8 Developer preview has been underway since September of 2011, and now it looks like Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

A new page on Bing.com shows a video of a beta fish swimming through a tank filled with Windows 8 links, including an invitation to see what’s new in Windows 8 and answers to your questions about Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

You can’t download the Windows 8 Consumer preview yet, but Microsoft should be releasing the details about a widespread consumer test drive of Windows 8 later this month.

Windows 8 offers a new take on Windows that borrows heavily from the Windows Phone Metro user interface. There is a heavy focus on touch, but Windows 8 will also work with your mouse and keyboard. You can check out a closer look at the Windows 8 preview given to developers last year.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is expected to be similar to the Windows 7 preview, which allowed users to test drive the operating system on their existing computers for several months before the system was launched to the public. It is not recommended that you install this on a computer you need to use for work on a daily basis, but if you have a second computer around it could give an interesting look at the future of Windows.

Stay tuned for more details on the launch of Windows 8 Consumer Preview later this month.

Via Cnet

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Coming This Month is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

At CES Microsoft head Steve Ballmer announced that the company would release a version of the popular Kinect sensor for Windows machines. Just as promised the units began shipping today. Currently it costs $249 but an educator version with a $100 discount will apparently come out later.

What can you do with a Kinect for Windows? Not much right now. This release is more for the developer community (the Kinect Windows SDK and runtime is available for download today). It won’t be long before we start seeing some native apps that work with the Kinect that don’t involve clever hacking.

When Microsoft first introduced the Kinect for Xbox consumers fell in love. Using your body as a controller isn’t so great when moving through menus, but when playing games like Dance Central or the various fitness titles it added a new and fabulous layer to gaming.

Shortly after its introduction hackers and DIYers began poking at the Kinect to see what it was capable of. Since it connects to the Xbox via a standard USB port it could also connect to a regular computer. Within weeks someone had cracked the device and a slew of fun innovations followed. The Kinect was used as a 3D video camera, a sensor on self-driving robots, and to control a computer with gestures.

At first Microsoft appeared appalled by this turn of events, chiding people for appropriating their accessory in this way. Then within days they changed their official stance, embracing the DIYers. And soon after that they went even further and started working on a release version of the SDK, which allows developers to create apps or hook the Kinect’s functions into a program.

While the Kinect for Windows will likely bring the body as game controller thing to PC gaming, I’m more excited for other prospects. Gesture control for Windows isn’t even a far-fetched idea. Last week Josh wrote that there are already prototypes of laptops with a Kinect sensor embedded. That’s a little ways off from being a commercial product, but not that far.

I can’t wait to see what developers create for Kinect on Windows. Windows 8 in particular. Swiping around a computer as if it’s a tablet while not even touching the screen? Yes, please. And that’s a minor implementation. I expect to be wowed.

(Related: Tobii Demos Gaze Interaction For Windows 8)

Kinect For Windows Starts Shipping Today, SDK Ready For Download is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

It’s good to know that in this age of immediate and easy customer feedback that there are still companies that steadfastly refuse to listen to the people who have to use their products. Case in point: Microsoft.

The Verge pointed to this post on the Microsoft Developers Network blog that talks about the many changes coming to Windows Explorer in Windows 8. The part that made me want to give up Windows forever comes near the end when Ilana Smith, a lead program manager on the Engineering System team, starts talking about the Ribbon.

If you haven’t been following this saga, Microsoft revealed a while back that the Ribbon found in Micosoft Office and other MS programs like WordPad and Paint is now coming to Windows Explorer as well. Did you need those extra pixels at the top of the screen? Too bad for you.

I hate this Ribbon with the burning passion of a thousand suns. And I am gratified to know I’m not alone:

“We had expected the introduction of the ribbon to Explorer to spur conversation, and it is fair to say the voluminous response was in line with our expectations,” Smith says. “[T]here is a set of people who have an entirely negative reaction to the affordance and have been telling us about it in no uncertain terms.”

And what is the official reaction to the font of hatred the Ribbon engenders is most right-thinking computer users?

“Our view is that we do need to move the user interface forward and accept that a vocal set of customers are just not happy with the direction we’re going.”

I have never wanted to switch to Mac so badly in my life.

I’m sorry, but I have to be blunt: what is this crap? You’re just going to do what you want no matter how much your customers hate it and how vocal they are in telling you so? This strategy may work for Facebook, but that’s because people can leave Facebook or interact with it through third-party programs. Oh wait, that’s Microsoft’s solution, too:

“We remind folks that there are third-party tools available… that provide a number of different interface paradigms. We do embrace the notion that third-party tools play an important part in the Windows experience.”

Yes, they do, because you keep making stupid decisions.

I don’t buy Smith’s assertion that a majority of users like the Ribbon and are more productive with it. I think the Ribbon beats people down until they just stop trying to look for more advanced functionality because it’s too difficult to find. And now they’re bringing that same genius to the Explorer, one of the most used areas of Windows.

Aside from that, it also takes up too many pixels. Bad enough we now live in a world where 16:9 displays are normal so people don’t have to see black bars when watching HD content and companies find 1366 x 768 an acceptable standard for screens as large as 15 inches, now even Explorer is using up horizontal pixels for no good reason.

I fear the only way to put a stop to this madness is to hijack a TARDIS and go back to 2005, find the person who came up with the idea of the Ribbon, give him or her 5 million dollars to retire to a small island with no phone or Internet service so they can’t be contacted, and inject a virus into the computers in Redmond that will destroy all references to it.

Barring that, perhaps a Change.org petition?

Microsoft, Enough With The Ribbon Already is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft’s Kinect has been a huge hit in the living room, bringing accurate motion and voice based controls to the Xbox 360.

This is great for games, but what about work?

The Daily got an early look at these Kinect notebook prototypes, which look to be modified Asus netbooks with Kinect Sensors to bring the power of motion control to Windows 8.

The Kinect Sensors are embedded in the top of the Kinect notebook prototype, and a row of LEDs line the bottom of the display.

Microsoft's working on Kinect notebooks.

After spending a month playing around with Kinect on the Xbox 360, I could see this being useful for activating programs or switching between apps when I am not directly at the keyboard.

Of course, there is always gaming. With Kinect built into notebooks and Xbox being a part of Windows 8 in some fashion, imagine all those Kinect games you have on your 360, now playable on your notebook wherever you are.

Microsoft also hopes that a Kinect enabled notebook would allow disabled individuals to have greater control over their notebooks and portable devices.

There was no word on how thick these Kinect notebooks were, but as we saw with Toshiba’s glasses free 3D notebook, technology can come a long way in a year. Microsoft won’t be making their own notebooks, but rather allowing manufacturers to integrate Kinect into systems running Windows 8.

The company will face some competition from the likes of Tobii, a company that has developed eye tracking software to allow users to control their computer with eye movement. Check out a demo of Tobii below.

Will Your Next Notebook Have Kinect Built In? is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft offered up an update for Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac that patches some security holes in the office suite. According to the MS website:

“This update fixes critical issues and also helps to improve security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. For more information about this update, please visit the Microsoft Web site.”

Office 2011 includes Mac versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The new version will be 14.1.4 and updates Office 2011 Service Pack 1. It comes in at a whopping 377.7 MB, so be patient if you’re on a slow connection.

To get the update, just open one of your Office 2011 programs and click on Help and then Check for Updates or you can go to the Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac website. An auto updater will download first and then the critical patch will be downloaded by the auto updater.

Microsoft Office 2011 Updated with Security and Bug Fixes is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

There were rumors that the beta of Microsoft Windows 8 would be coming early next year, most likely in February on the heals of CES.

Microsoft has confirmed that timetable.

Microsoft released what they called a developer preview earlier this year that showed off the new Metro User Interface that resembles it’s phone operating system. Instead of 3D looking app icons, like you find on most Android devices and the iPhone, you instead get tiles of varying sizes.

The new interface certainly will be controversial. Microsoft seems to be betting their future on a touch-centric and tablet style interface. That’s great for the many people who want a tablet running Windows. With a large segment of users Android failed to impress. Many of these people will not use Apple products. I know a bunch of people want a Windows tablet, but prices and the clunky Windows tablet interface up to this point has made it a niche product.

However, what if you use Windows on a desktop computer with a mouse or a laptop with a tiny trackpad? In my experience the Metro UI didn’t work well in either environment. Hopefully Microsoft figured this out with the developer preview and will find a happy medium.

The developer preview also frustrated many users who couldn’t figure out how to close apps. On a phone that might not be a problem, but when you have an app that plays music and you can’t close it, you get strange looks form office-mates or fellow coffee shop patrons. Hopefully such weaknesses will be fixed in the beta.

Based on experiences with Windows 7 and Vista betas, the Windows 8 beta should be close to feature complete, giving users a look at what the final product will be like when it finally shows up on computers at your local Best Buy. That date hasn’t been released, but expect it sometime next fall before the holiday buying season and possibly in time for the back-to-school period.

If Microsoft follows past patterns members of their Microsoft Technet and MSDN services for developers and IT professionals will get a first look a few days before the rest of the general public. Then average users can download the update.

Besides a new interface the OS will come with its own app store, details of which Microsoft just revealed this week. They will offer developers an 80/20 split after they make $25,000 gross in app downloads. This undercuts Apple and Android’s 70/30 model if the app is a success. Until the app hits the $25K mark developers will get the same 70%.

Source: The Verge and Mashable

Windows Beta 8 Coming Soon: What to Expect is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.