Virtualization is built into Windows 8

Whereas in Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows there were Virtual PC and Windows XP mode (a great feature that will persuade many a skeptic about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7) there is now Hyper-V, the incredible and mature Microsoft virtualization system. Hyper-V, now up to par with the leader VMware, is built into Windows 8 (though the Desktop version) but still useful to install and control a number of virtual machines using the Hyper-V Manager. The first step to take is to enable it by accessing "Turn Windows features on or off" (to do that, while in the Start screen, the one with the tiles, type "features" and then select "Settings") to reveal the application shown here. There is plenty to learn here and it's the wave of the future. The link to MSDN, up there, includes a great video explaining how to enable and install Hyper-V, including the trickiest part: networking and Internet access.

Oh, please! Stop complaining and just type...

It may be reasonable the "frustration" of some folks when Windows 8 starts and all they see is precisely that, The Start Screen laid out with nicely arranged dynamic tiles. Some still want to see the old desktop that existed up until Windows 7 and that had been around since Windows 95. Guess what? Just start typing and you will get to where you want to go. For instance, do you want the control panel? All right, then start typing "control" and you'll see on the right hand side the Windows 8 SEARCH feature (shown here) that will instantly drill down Apps, Settings and Files to find what you are looking for. At the left hand side (not shown) you will see the search results in the forms of icons and, if the application, setting or file you need is highlighted just hit Enter or click on the corresponding icon. I have explained before, in addition to this neat search feature (that is way better than the old start button), how to use the Windows Key and switch between Metro and Desktop and also challenged my readers asking What do you need the Start button for? Hope this post helps new users and gives a break to "frustrated" would-be users of this great OS.

Outlook.com: more cloud integration and power to you

Microsoft launched today its new web mail service, Outlook.com, as a personal e-mail service that aspires to be "a modern email for the next billion mailboxes." It is the same desktop application and service for business (Exchange server) that you are probably already used to, but with a new Metro interface, from within your Internet browser, with a neat interface and a nimble performance . You can subscribe to this free service either creating a new account or using one of your Hotmail or Live.com accounts. Outlook.com will replace Hotmail and its aimed, among other things, to attract users from Google's Gmail service as a very solid competitor. Microsoft thinks that the time is right to reimagine email, "we realized that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past and build you a brand new service from the ground up." Read more in the Outlook Blog.

In spite of "strategic" naysayers Windows 8 is and will continue to be a success

In a tech media landscape apparently covered by iPhone and iPad fanboys, if not Android ones, there appears to be a concerted effort to rain on Microsoft's parade, with its new line of products around Windows 8, namely, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 for desktop PCs and tablets. Take for example, the unwarranted article featured on the cover of the otherwise serious and unbiased magazine Vanity Fair under the header Microsoft's Lost Decade. The question is, why precisely now? This article has the "news (?) angle" or better yet the "editorial angle" in which Microsoft is portrayed as if they hadn't done anything (to be reckoned with)  since the release of Windows XP, ten years ago! And it also appears to come from ex Microsoft employees, like someone who left the company 16 years ago (in 1996!) and is featured by blogger Preston Gralla of ComputerWord,  in an article with a dramatic National Enquirer-style headline:  Microsoft ex-employee -- Windows 8 is a "catastrophe." Gralla boasts that "he can offer insightful, clear-eyed commentary about Microsoft and all its technologies" (!) Hard to believe. Not to mention, a number of so called tech journalists, i.e. "journos" everywhere on the Web spewing, often regurgitated, false statements and clearly biased opinions on these products. "Analysis" on software and hardware products they haven't used for more than a few minutes, and that in the event that they actually did. And don't get me started with the ubiquitous Apple laptop on every movie, commercial, magazine ad or news about computers developers and startups and entrepreneurs. Coincidence? I definitely don't think so!
On the other hand there are the thousands of enthusiastic old and new followers of the super nimble and elegant Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 Release preview and the Surface Tablet. How about "Mac User: Why I love Windows 8"? And how about Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, providing new freshmen with a Windows 8 Tablet and a Nokia Lumia 900 phone?
A lost decade for Microsoft? With a repertoire of proven business tools like these?! The bias is completely obvious in the media outlets mentioned above and everywhere else.

Wozniak, Apple's co-founder, praises Microsoft, again

Steve Wozniak is an electronics engineer and a computer pioneer, with a bunch of Doctor of Engineering degrees, and better known as the co-founder, with Steve Jobs, of Apple. Last week, as a special guest of the Entel Summit, in Chile, once again he expressed his appreciation for Microsoft technologies.  He said, more or less verbatim, that "I do see a lot of stuff coming out from Microsoft in the consumer arena (Nokia Lumia phones, Surface) and they have such a strikingly good visual appearance, which is a lot of what Steve Jobs always looked for: the convergence of art and technology...so I made a joke that Steve Jobs came back reincarnated at Microsoft... and I do want to see the surface, I want to own one, I want to use one; I prefer to judge things that I really know, and not what I read about. I'm glad that Microsoft is starting to show that maybe they're a different company than before. I don't remember this sort of thing happening in a long, long time for Microsoft. I'm very happy..." Wozniak, a gadget geek, had specifically expressed his admiration for the Nokia Lumia 900 a few months ago when he declared, in a interview, that "Windows Phone apps are much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone". Well, I have to agree with him, not just, this because this a Windows blog and because I am a happy owner of a Nokia Lumia phone, but because he's spot on.

It's official: a new Microsoft Tablet has arrived!

Sooner than expected! A few minutes ago, at around 7:20 pm PT, Steve Ballmer made official the launch of new devices to go with the upcoming iteration of the Windows 8 operating system frenzy. A new tablet, called the Surface, and with Microsoft hardware, which is 9.3 mm thin, 675 grams in weight, has been announced in Los Angeles, city of entertainment and celebrities, during a secretive gathering of selected media representatives who never knew exactly what they were going to cover up until the last minute. There are two products that were introduced: The Surface for Windows RT, with an nVidia processor, and the second one, called Surface for Windows 8 Pro with an Intel x86 microprocessor, full HD display, and both have specs that rival the finest ultrabooks.

Windows 8 Release Preview up and running

Composed screenshot: the opening screen plus an insert of the setup.

My first most notable impression about this latest release of Windows 8 in its path to its final launch, is that I like it even more after having installed, reviewed, played and enjoyed the Developer Preview and the Consumer Preview versions. I assume that it will do a great iPad competitor and that even without using touch, it'll do a great laptop computer operating system as well. In this iteration the use and functionality of the Metro UI and its applications is more evident. It's nimble, it's practical, it's beautiful. While you are at it, don't forget to go around the world with the Travel tile, one of the many cool and vibrant apps already in the operating system.