Windows 8 | featured news

IDC says PC global shipments of PCs fell 14 percent in the first three months this year, the sharpest plunge seen since the research firm started tracking the industry in 1994....

The next generation of Xbox could finally be announced this spring. On May 21, the company will forget about the troubled Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems and lavish a bit of attention on the Xbox, according to bloggers who cite sources familiar with Microsoft's plans.

A new tablet computer and Windows 8.1: The marriage of the summer? Like a blushing fiancé eager to step up to the altar, Microsoft picked a date and sent out invitations Tuesday for the Build 2013 conference, where the software giant is likely to announce early availability of an update to the Windows 8 operating system.

I was pretty excited when the Surface Pro arrived about ten days ago, so I could test it ahead of its release on February 9th.  Finally, a tablet that’s also a laptop that also runs a mature operating system (Windows 8) and lets me use all the PC software I know and love. This is the machine I’ve been waiting for.

At CES 2013, ASUS consumed the entire 62nd floor of Trump Tower. Each suite housed unreleased hardware from the company's broad range of displays, motherboards, accessories, gaming peripherals, tablets, and PCs. The jewel of the collection was the dual OS Transformer All-in-One Desktop, a PC and tablet hybrid running both Windows 8 and Android Jellybean.

Sales of computers and tablets running Microsoft’s new operating system have been slow this holiday season, underscoring the challenges to the PC business.

It can take days to weeks for users to adjust to Windows 8, the new head of Windows product development admits in a recent interview. What's wrong with this picture? In an interview with the MIT Technology Review, Julie Larson-Green explained that most users "don't have trouble upfront" with Microsoft's new operating system. But for those that do, it can take some time to get used to.

This week, Microsoft announced that it sold a truly bananas 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in the new operating system's first month of availability. Even though some unknown portion of those sales are to manufacturers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard -- who then have to convince consumers to purchase their laptops, desktops, hybrids and whatnots -- and even though certain analysts insist that this marks a "disappointing" debut for the new Windows, 40 million licenses in one month is still an incredible number.

Most televisions and all MacBooks still lack a touch screen. When will this change? When will all displays be converted to touch screens? It could take some time. While the PC industry has embraced Windows 8 with a wide variety of touch screen devices (including laptops and desktops), some manufacturers are reluctant to enter the realm.

Microsoft Corp. said Monday that Steven Sinofsky, the president of its Windows and Windows Live operations, is leaving the company. Sinofsky's departure comes just weeks after the Redmond, Wash., software company launched Windows 8, which represented a major overhaul of its ubiquitous computer operating system.