Windows 8 Commercial

It's been playing on the television this past month. Following on the heels of HP's adverts for Ink Advantage printers, here is Microsoft's commercial for their new operating system, Windows 8:

Is the Philippines finally catching up that we have these tech giants finally making advertisements beyond print and now on television and billboards? Let's hope so!

Windows 8 has arrived

Windows 8 has arrived. Here is a look at the OEM version of the latest Windows operating system.

For comparison, on the left is the OEM version of Windows 7, to the right is Windows 8. Both Windows Vista and 7 feature an external packaging made of card stock that is basically a mold of the DVD case containing the installer. Windows 8 takes a more minimalist (though I imagine some would say cheap) approach by placing the product in a card stock envelope minus the DVD case.

So, when we open the package, here is what we get. Gone is the DVD case, replaced by a second card stock envelope. The design reflects the minimalist approach by Microsoft for Windows 8 and the color of the packaging is the same as the tiles you will see when actually using the operating system. The COA label also gets a redesign as well. I don't know if it will fit in the space provided by PC manufacturers in some laptop models but a rectangular shape is a good start.

Using 32-bit key on 64-bit Windows

So, I have a notebook with a Windows operating system pre-installed. The thing is the version installed is a Windows Vista Professional 32-bit. The CPU is a Core 2 Duo. The default memory is a mere 1GB but with an additional slot for expansion purposes. Now, I think why I'm saddled with 1GB. Why can't I upgrade the memory all the way to 4GB?

But wait, didn't they say you couldn't take advantage of the 4GB memory if your OS isn't a 64-bit? That's still true but if you don't mind the extra work, why not reformat your unit with a 64-bit version of Windows Vista?

I want to use Outlook for e-mail but I’m too cheap to pay for POP mail

Microsoft Outlook is probably one of the most underrated applications in Microsoft Office and yet is consistently present in most editions. I say underrated because most users seem to ignore it. But people who are in business or office work are more likely to use it. It’s just almost right up there with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The most common use for Outlook is as an e-mail management application. Your e-mail inbox is the first thing that you see when you open the application. Typically, in order for you to use e-mail in Outlook, you need someone to provide you with an e-mail service. This can be in the form of an ISP (Internet Service Provider) who provides you with an e-mail account. You access that account by configuring Outlook to your host’s POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) settings or any similar protocols. Your ISP might or might not charge you for this extra service. Also, not every ISP provides e-mail service. What are our options?

Transcend flash drive recovery

On one occasion, I tried using the Win2Flash utility to create Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive. By copying directly from the DVD instead of a copy in the hard drive, I somehow rendered my Transcend USB flash drive unusable. Sure, Windows could still detect the flash drive, it appears in Windows Explorer but it couldn’t read from it nor could I reformat it again to a usable state. I even tried to tinker with its properties in Computer Management. No luck, it seems.

I searched online for anything that I might be able to do to make my flash drive usable again and I came across links for data recovery of flash drives. However, that is not what I wanted. There are no data that needed to be saved, I just wanted the flash drive to work again. After some sifting through the searches, I came across a forum wherein someone has the same problem. The solution, it seems, is to download Transcend’s Online Recovery utility. It seemed to describe what I hope to achieve.

The utility can be downloaded from this website: http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/DLCenter/DLSoftware.asp?ID=4&Func1No=3&Func2No=205&LangNo=0