Windows XP Support Ends Yet You See Many Users Clinging On To It

We all know by now that Windows XP is no more supported by the software giant Microsoft Corporation. This means that the 13-year-old operating system will not be receiving any security updates, hotfixes, patches, or Windows tech support either free or paid.

Microsoft has been intending to do this for many years now. But, the software giant could not go ahead with the plans because of the huge number of Windows XP users in the market. Windows XP survived thirteen long years. This is by far the longest period of support enjoyed by any Microsoft product.

There are many reasons why XP reigned supreme from so many years in the software universe. Here are the three main reasons for that.

Familiarity

Windows XP is so familiar that when we think of an operating system, you tend to picture the interface of XP at first. It supports a wide range of applications to make the user experience much better. Windows XP was undoubtedly the most popular operating system of the last decade. In fact, Windows XP ruled the market until Windows 7 took over.

Windows Vista a horrendous OS

If Windows XP reached the pinnacle, Windows Vista was the nadir of Microsoft’s operating system development history. No words can adequately describe what went wrong with Vista. There was so much hype with it, but the software delivered very little. It was probably the success of Windows XP, which in some way caused Vista to bomb big time. With the failure of Windows Vista, Windows XP’s market share remained at the top.

Products compatible with Windows XP
As Windows XP dominated the major operating system for about a decade, many software products were specifically developed to be compatible with the platform. And so, many small business software products are only compatible with Windows XP. This is why many SMBs are stilling continuing with Windows XP.

Whatever the reason for not migrating to newer Windows operating systems be, with no official Windows tech support and security updates available, Windows XP users are actually taking a huge risk. Even before the end of support, Windows XP was the most targeted operating system. So, you can imagine the kind of bombardment your XP powered system will have to face in the future.

It is best to migrate to advanced, superior, and feature-packed operating systems like Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. You will surely get more to enjoy with such metro-ized operating systems.

Mainstream Windows 7 Support Deadline Approaching

Most of you might be pretty much aware about the end of support for Windows XP, the aging Microsoft Windows Operating System. But, you might be surprised to know that even Windows 7 support is about to end next year. Microsoft will end their mainstream support for all versions of Windows 7 on January 13, 2015. However, it is quite different from what happened with Windows XP support.

Now, it has not been long since the Windows XP End of Support, now the software maker has announced the end of mainstream support for Windows 7 and some other Microsoft products. You will be hearing lot more deadlines from now on.

You need to know that what happened with Windows XP is something different. It is as if Microsoft has totally abandoned the operating system. There is no support being offered, whatsoever, which means there is no use calling Windows support number when you have any technical issues concerning Windows XP. You will not be receiving any kind of official support. When it comes to the loss of support, which looms for Windows 7, the company means just end of mainstream support only.

There are three kinds of support end dates that the software giant offers for all their products. First is mainstream support deadline and then for the extended support and finally the End of Support.

Mainstream support involves tech services, which are offered during the first five years of the product. This includes all kinds of security updates, non-security hot fixes and free technical support covered by the software product license and feature updates.

With the end of mainstream support, the product goes into support period known as extended support. In this type of support, except for the security updates, there will be no other offerings.

Actually, for most businesses and consumers, end of mainstream support may not be a worrisome thing. The only thing is after January they would have to pay the software maker when they call Windows support number for help whenever they request for it.

Now, the major problem is actually when the company totally discontinues all kinds of support for a product. This means you will no longer be able to avail any support facilities offered by Microsoft. Your system will be exposed to serious vulnerabilities if you continue using that product even after the end of support period.

So, for now, Windows 7 users need not worry. Even if the mainstream support ends, the extended support will continue for another five years.

Tips And Tricks To Get The Most Out Of Microsoft Office

The Microsoft help forum tips that are shared below will help you get the most out of the Microsoft Office suite. Read ahead to know more on these tips and tricks.

Tips And Tricks

• The users can zoom in and out of the Word documents quickly using the scroll button on the mouse. To do this, you just have to hold down the Ctrl key and then roll the wheel forward to zoom in the document. If you wish to zoom out, you can roll the scroll wheel back to shrink the document. 
• Another tip is to hold down the Shift key while selecting the File menu in Word (or in the Outlook program while you are composing an email message). This will change the menu options. You will get handy options to Save All and Close All the open files in Word program. In the Microsoft Excel program, you will get a Close All option, not a Save All. 
• If you are trying to make a numbered or bulleted list in the Word or PowerPoint program, you may want an item to appear on the list without a bullet or number prefix. You will be able to start a new line without bullets or numbers by pressing Shift and Enter keys together. The next time the user presses the Enter key, the new line will continue the numbered or bulleted list. In the Excel program, the user can press Alt and Enter keys simultaneously to start a new line inside a cell. 
• Format Painter is one of the much-overlooked features in the Microsoft Office program. This icon is present in the upper part of the window and has a little paintbrush on it. Once this feature is selected, it can make the user a copy of the text that the cursor has selected. 
• When the users copy text from the Internet or some other document into a Word file, the Word program will reproduce the typeface, font size and color that is displayed in the original document. If you wish the pasted text to match the formatting in the destination document, you can make use of Edit | Paste Special and then choose Unformatted Text. 
• You can also make use of the shortcut keys in the Office suite. There is a big collection of these keys that can make your task much easy.

These are some of the tips to make working with Microsoft Office much easy. If you wish to get more tips, you can visit the Microsoft help forum.

Internet Explorer Finally Steps Up!

After a string of defeats, both in terms of popularity and security, Microsoft has finally decided to step up with its once-popular website browser, Internet Explorer. They recently announced on their official blog that the next release of Internet Explorer would feature four new features: Web Audio API, Media Capture and Streams, ES6 Promises and HTTP/2. That’s not all! Microsoft assured its users the list in not exhaustive, and that the actual release would feature many more features apart from the ones stated above.

HTTP/2, which is based on Google’s SPDY open networking protocol, is the latest state-of-the-art protocol, which will result in significant improvement in speed. Thus, we can expect the latest Internet Explorer to be a lot faster than predecessor versions. Many users contacted the Microsoft support staff to confirm this news.

While Web Audio JavaScript API will process and synthesize audio faster than the existing system, Media Capture provides the website browser, access to audio and video device hardware of your system. Both these systems will enhance your online browsing experience when using Internet Explorer. On the other hand, ES6 Promises are meant for developers. They let you write shorter and cleaner code.

In its official blog, Microsoft promises “commitment to delivering interoperable implementations for the latest features on the modern Web” with the next Internet Explorer release. True to their statement, if these features are introduced, Internet Explorer will stand at par with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the most popular website browsers at present.

Apart from this, the Official Microsoft blog promises interoperability, compatibility and security. Not only will the latest Internet Explorer feature improved security features that aim at plugging potential vulnerabilities, any website whether written ages ago in standard HTML code, or in latest HTML5, will be compatible.

Moreover, status.modern.ie, which was first released at Build 2014, will soon come out of Beta testing phase with the following improvements:

• Open sourced - The entire data is available for users to view and download.
• Improved Search Function and Filters - you can find the features you want easily using the new and improved version.
• Mobile Support - Nowadays, websites observe more traffic through hand-held mobile phones than traditional desktop computers. Thus, all systems need to be optimized for better viewing in mobile phones.

At present, it’s not sure what the latest version of Internet Explorer would be named but users have already started calling it IE12! To know more details about new version, feel free to contact the Microsoft Support team.

About The Windows 8 Help And Support Feature

On October 26th of 2012, Microsoft released their latest operating system Windows 8, which brought some radical changes to the computer industry by completely redefining the user interface of the operating system. With Windows 8, Microsoft revamped their user interface to a tile based design by ditching their age-old icon based design. It was this new design that attracted people to the operating system. The operating system also included support for all the new technologies in the market like USB 3.0, Advanced Hard drive formats and Near Field Communications.

Even though market researchers say that the operating system could not achieve the success of its predecessor, according to the details we were able to procure from Windows online support website, Microsoft has managed to sell about 100 million copies of the operating system worldwide. The best feature of the operating system is that it included new security features like UEFI secure boot, inbuilt antivirus software and Microsoft smart screen. However, with added support services and features, it is obvious that the operating system will have more bugs and troubles.

Well, there is nothing to be worried about the bugs and issues with the Windows 8 operating system, as you can get help from the Windows 8 help and support team in such cases. Windows online support center allows the users to get support for all of their issues with the operating system. There is no need to get online support in the first place, as there is an inbuilt help and support program in the operating system. You can launch the help and support program by pressing the F1 key in the keyboard or by clicking on its icon present in the Start menu.

The program is categorized into three main sections, Get Started, Internet & Network and Security Privacy & Accounts. The first section has basic information on how to use the Windows 8 operating system, like installing new programs in the operating system, using keyboard and mouse with the computer etc. in the second section, the program gives us information on creating and connecting the system to networks or other computers over a network.

The third section provides users information on how to create a strong password and manager their computers free from viruses and malwares. In short, a user can fix almost all types of issues by getting help from the Windows help and support.

Try Removing Yahoo Search Bar From Mozilla Firefox

Yahoo does not require any kind of introduction as it is one of the most popular names that we have been hearing across a decade. Yahoo search engine or email client provides us with other utilities and to name them, there are a lot. In order to help you to access Yahoo utilities quickly, Yahoo has offered its toolbar, which we call as Yahoo toolbar.

Yahoo toolbar could be added to your web browser quite easily no matter whether it is Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. The toolbar when installed gets attached to your web browser, you will definitely find it easy to access Yahoo search engine and other related sites of Yahoo from the toolbar. This is mostly helpful if you are a frequent user of Yahoo sites.

But what if you do not access Yahoo sites most often and if you have accidentally installed it? Well, you can remove Yahoo toolbar, because Yahoo site may use up more of your screen space leaving very little space for you to view your web page. Normally you find search bars of Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Creative Commons and Answers. You can definitely manage the search bars or even try to remove Yahoo toolbar from your web browser.

Let us follow the different set of instructions that you need to follow.

Instructions

• You can open Mozilla Firefox on your computer. 
• You will find a search box in it and it will be small. You will find a small arrow next to it. The search box is located on top right of the window. You will find a drop down menu from which you can select Manage Search Engines. 
• You can choose Yahoo to keep it highlighted. On right side of the window pane, you can choose Remove and this will help you to delete Yahoo completely from the list. If you are not sure about uninstalling the same from your web browser, you can anyway choose the search bar that you wish to see on the web browser. 
• Now select OK and this will apply the changes that you have made. 

The above steps will definitely remove Yahoo toolbar from your web browser. The above instructions are simple enough, and you can definitely follow the same for successful removal of the toolbar from your web browser.

Mac Users Experiencing Issues With Outlook

Of late, Outlook users have been experiencing several issues regarding the syncing of information in OS X. The most commonly found problems with Outlook include those related to Apple Mail’s IMAP syncing. Many websites have reported fixes to overcome this problem regarding the Outlook messages.

There have been many issues reported related to the compatibility of applications on the Mac computer. Earlier the problems were reported related to Maverick’s and Mail.app's support for Gmail, and other questionable support for other IMAP mail services. Although Apple reportedly released a fix for this solution, it didn’t do much. Not only were existing issues left unsolved, but the issues still continued. As stated by the ZDNet readers, some of the main issues in Mail.app on OS X Mavericks include having trouble with missing commas in Cc: and Bcc: fields in addition to the slow performance of the application while opening some attachments in it. Now, the users are also experiencing the same sort of issues in Outlook. According to a recent MacWindows blog post, Editor John Rizzo mentioned about the existing sync problems with Outlook on Mavericks, and the possible fixes that can be done by using Microsoft Exchange Online. He also suggested a different solution to overcome this issues and that is by running Outlook for Windows in a number of virtualization choices. But then, this choice won’t be suitable for everyone.

Another quick fix suggested to solve the problems with Outlook includes running the application for Windows on your Mac in a Windows virtual machine using components such as Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Oracle VirtualBox. This is because even though now Apple doesn’t entertain Sync services from OS X, the company still offers Sync Services for Windows OSs, including Windows 8. According to the Windows tech support, the sync Services for Windows is available in the current version of iTunes for Windows. This means that the users can easily do the iOS-to-Windows syncing directly. Now, if you're already running Outlook for Windows in a virtual machine, you may find it easy. But in other cases, it may prove to be quite expensive. Rizzo also said that there have been rumors about the addition of CalDAV and CardDAV support to Outlook for Mac by Microsoft, which is another viable solution.

Hence, it can be said that the problems of Mac users with the Outlook application still continues. It is yet to be seen how much time Microsoft takes to curb such issues permanently.