Microsoft offers a choice of a straight ISO file or a setup assistant that can tell you if your current environment is compatible with the new OS. Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and ...

Reinstalling Windows is a long, grueling experience. Once you get the OS running you have to download updates, track down the right drivers, install your apps, and put everything else together.

Windows has always boasted an impressive assortment of third-party programs that enhance its functionality. However, until recently there wasn’t a single way for users to get applications. Some ...

The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant is a program by Microsoft that allows you to quickly assess whether or not your computer is capable of running Windows 8 and then purchase it. It does this by scanning ...

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 may sound like a new operating system, but it’s really more like a Service Pack. The update includes new features, modifies old ones, and fixes flaws, but it doesn’t amount to ...

To say Windows 8 is a knockout crowd-pleaser would be a downright — and dastardly — lie. As sleek, swift and imaginative as the touchscreen operating system may be have seemed upon its initial release ...

Windows 8 has the ability to create a bootable USB flash recovery drive that can be used to troubleshoot a Windows 8 computer that is unable to start. A recovery drive is the same as a startup repair ...

Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on ...

It’s scorching out. Any housework that needs doing is already done. And with the long weekend ahead, it’s time for a simple computing project. Here’s one: Install the Windows 8.1 preview. Last week, ...

I’m writing this on an Asus Zenbook UX31A at a Peet’s Coffee on Stevens Creek Boulevard in the heart of Silicon Valley. In an adjacent table a man and woman have papers spread out on a table, talking ...