Thursday, June 12, 2014

How To Install New Drivers In Windows 8

Device Drivers are nifty little software that let the Windows operating system communicate with hardware that are plugged in to the computer. Some hardware come with the drivers built-in so the Windows operating system can install them straight from the hardware instead of going online. The Microsoft operating system itself stores few generic drivers that enable you to plug-and-play devices.

In most circumstances, Windows 8 automatically recognizes the new device when it’s plugged in. Sometimes, it needs to download Windows 8 drivers online when connected with a new device. At times, Windows 8 even needs to fetch some automated instructions although it has the device drivers needed to interact with the hardware.

Window 8 drivers have to be downloaded when you plug-in a device that is either too old or too new to be remembered by the system. That is when you see the same old “needing a new driver” message that you are so used to seeing in older versions of Windows operating system!

In such cases, you have to find and install the much needed Windows 8 drivers before you can interact with the device. Most new devices come built-in with the drivers needed to run or come bundled with an installation program that will place a GUI to interact with the device as well as drivers to function properly.

Here’s what you have to do to locate and install the latest driver suitable for the device.

Go to the manufacturer’s website and download the latest driver
  • Search the box in which the device came in to check for the manufacturer’s website. If you can’t locate it, a simple online search of the manufacturer’s name would do. 
  • Once you open the website, check for the device drivers in the Support or Downloads page. If you are lucky, the website would give away the driver once you furnish the device details. 
  • If you can’t find a Windows 8 compatible driver, try downloading the Windows 7 driver instead. In most cases, they work equally well.
Run the installation Program Furnished by the Driver
  • Some installation programs have device drivers bundled with them and simple installing of the program will install the suitable driver as well. 
Through the Device Manager
  • Right-click on the bottom left corner of the screen and select Device Manager. 
  • A list of every device that is attached to your computer will appear on your screen. You can identify the faulty one with the yellow exclamation mark on it. 
  • Select the device and then click on Action to view the drop-down menu bar. Choose the Add Legacy hardware from this menu and follow the instructions and prompts by the Add Hardware Wizard. 
If you need further assistance or have any queries, feel free to contact our Technical Support desk.

How To Uninstall Windows 8 Developer Preview

The developer preview of the Windows 8 promises to be one of the finest operating systems. Most of the computer users who have used the Windows 8 Developer Preview have given positive responses and reviews for this operating system. The recent statistics show that the Windows 8 Developer Preview was downloaded 500,000 times in just one day after its release. Moreover, by this time it has crossed the one million mark.

The Developer Preview of Windows 8 has introduced many new features and concepts. This operating system is compatible with all the systems that are compatible with the Windows 7 operating system. As per the Microsoft support page, you will not be able to uninstall Windows 8 from a computer in which the Windows 8 OS is installed on top of Windows 7. If you have already installed the Windows 8 operating system in your computer, the only option that you have is to reinstall the previous operating system with the installation media or alternatively restore it from the backup.

Remove Windows 8 With The Boot Option In msconfig
  • Turn on your PC and after it loads completely, type msconfig in Start search and press the Enter key.
  • The System Configuration Utility will open up. Go to the Boot tab and then select Windows Developer Preview. You may now click on the Delete button to uninstall the Window 8 Developer Preview from your computer completely. 
  • Click on the Apply button and then on the OK button. 
  • Now you need to format the partition in which Windows 8 Developer Preview is installed to get back your hard disk space. To do this, open Computer folder and then right click on the drive in which Windows 8 Developer Preview has been installed. From the options that are available, select Format. 
  • You can Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
These are the simple and easy to follow steps to remove the Windows 8 Developer Preview from your computer. You can follow these steps carefully so that you will not encounter any Windows errors while the process of removing the Windows 8 Developer Preview version. If you have any doubts or confusions in any of the steps to uninstall Windows 8 Developer preview, you can contact the Microsoft support number for further assistance. The Windows support technicians will help you remove Windows 8 from your computer without getting any errors.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Internet Explorer 11 Breaks Microsoft’s CRM Software

Compatibility issues have been a major problem with the Internet Explorer 11 as the problem still plagues the web browser. Some of the Microsoft customers are complaining that the latest version of Internet Explorer does not work with one of the products from Microsoft. The users first raised the red flag about the Internet Explorer in October and many reports surfaced that the web browser is rendering a number of websites functionless, including many of the Google and Outlook.com services from Microsoft.

Microsoft had released a fix for this particular issue, even though the reason for the cropping up of these was unclear. It seems that the latest and so-called powerful browser from the Redmond giant seems to be at it again. Moreover, like before, a Microsoft product is taking the hit. This information was confirmed after contacting the Microsoft help and support service team.

Daria Barteneva, who is a service engineer with Microsoft, blogged that the customers of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are having issues running the initial configuration of the new CRM Online instances. This includes the free trials also. Barteneva had posted a workaround for the issue, but that was not a big comfort for the affected users. Compatibility View is the name for the mode that makes the latest version of IE behave as if it is an earlier version, complete with the version rendering web standard incompatibilities and quirks.

Microsoft support organization has also published an updated document that lists the browser compatibility for Dynamics CRM. In it, the latest supported version of the Internet Explorer web browser is listed as IE10. Only the desktop version of IE10 is supported. This means that the touch-enabled version for the Windows 8 Start Screen will not work properly.

This news will be a disappointment for the users who have upgraded to Windows 8.1, as the IE11 was included as a part of the upgrade and to increase the disappointment, there is no way to roll back to the old version once you are running the latest operating system from Windows. Finding another computer to run the setup or switching to the Compatibility View is the only option for these customers. If you wish to know more on this news, you can contact the Microsoft help and support service team. They will be able to provide you with more updates on the compatibility issues of Internet Explorer 11.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Repairing OST Files In Outlook

If you are using Microsoft Outlook as your primary email application, you will be enjoying access to numerous useful and advanced options. These include a calendar, journals, task manager etc. which you can use to organize and manage the important events in your life. In addition to these, there are also options available in Outlook that help in the safe storage of personal as well as other contact information. The personal information of the users is stored in specific file folders known as personal storage tables or PST files.

Now, whenever the Internet connection is available, the changes you have made in the Outlook application get synchronized with the Microsoft Exchange Server. In the Outlook email setup, OST files are known as a copy of the mailbox on Exchange Server and are stored in the hard drive of the system. But sometimes, you may find the information missing from these file folders. This can happen if the OST files become corrupted.

You can try the following methods to fix PST file corruption in the Outlook email setup.

Using OST Integrity Check Tool

  • The OST Integrity Check tool is a built-in repair tool, which helps in fixing the corrupted OST files. This program easily scans both the OST and mailbox file running on MS Exchange server. 
  • According to the Outlook tech support team, this tool will help in comparing items and folders in each file. This in turn helps in fixing the synchronization differences between these folders. However, for using the services of this tool, it is important to get connected to the Exchange account server. 
Instructions to repair OST file error using Scanost.exe:
  • At first, you need to close the Microsoft Outlook application. Now, you can open Scanost.exe by double clicking on the program.
  • Next, you need to select the specific OST file, which needs to be repaired among the available list of files.
  • In the next step, you can click on Connect, if you get an option to Connect or Work Offline. You can select your desired option from these.
  • Now, you can go ahead and select the Repair Errors checkbox. This will ensure the automatic resolving of the errors while scanning the corrupted OST files.
  • Now, you can click on the Begin Scan option.
These instructions can help you in successfully fixing the corrupt OST files in Outlook. To get further assistance on fixing such Outlook issues, feel free to contact our technical support team.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Comparison Of Windows 7 And Windows 8 Operating Systems

Windows 8 operating system’s interface is one of those interfaces that look really cool on ads, but appears to be designed to be used more with touch screen devices in mind. I am running the Windows 8 operating system on a 4 GB RAM Pentium processor Acer laptop that is trying to support the Windows 8 OS and frankly, it is not doing a great job. In a world of instant gratification, nobody will wish to wait for 30 seconds for the apps to load, when it takes only 2 seconds for these apps to load on other computers. The Windows 8 OS is supposed to be pretty speedy.

I guess that the Windows 8 operating system would be more exciting on an i7 processor that could support the features of Windows 8 and will be able to run the operating system more efficiently. Once you reach the Start page of the OS, you will see a tile that allows the users to click on the desktop. But in reality, many of the users like the desktop of Windows 7 operating system more than that of the Windows 8 OS. The Windows 7 vs Windows 8 page states that the desktop of Windows 8 works much like the desktop of Windows 7, but there is no Start button in the Windows 8 operating system.

Instead, the user can slide the mouse over the left hand corner and a picture of the tile will pop up so that the user will be able to jump into the Start page. It is true that the Windows 8 operating system is more effective with touch screen laptop computers. The user can slide the mouse over the upper left hand corner and then slide down to see what other programs and apps are open at the given time. The apps that are not on the desktop will not open on the desktop, meaning that you will not be able to access them at the same time unless you click and drag them to the side of the screen so that you can have two apps open simultaneously.

It will take a while for the user to get the hang of the Windows 8 operating system. If you wish to know more on the features and comparison of the Windows 8 and Windows 7 operating systems, you can visit the Windows 7 vs Windows 8 page in the official Microsoft website.

Monday, June 2, 2014

The Outlook Vs Gmail War

Microsoft consolidated all of their email services like Live, Hotmail and Outlook to a single email service last year in an effort to make the email service more powerful and widespread. Until recent years, the technical community has without any disputes agreed to the fact that Gmail and Google will be dominating the electronic messages community in the future. However, Microsoft introduced their Outlook.com email service in an effort to get back the post that was rightfully theirs. Google took the zenith position in the email services industry from Microsoft’s Hotmail email service by introducing the Gmail service.

With the presence of new advanced features in Outlook.com, Microsoft is planning to take the zenith position again. It is heard that the company has made many improvements in their webmail service. The company has included better and advanced rules for managing the emails perfectly and in an ordered manner. Microsoft has even included an import tool for helping Gmail users with the Outlook email setup. With this new tool in place, switching to Outlook email from Gmail has become a hassle free process.

The company has also made some new advanced rules in the Outlook.com so that you will be able to set you inbox in an ordered manner. Microsoft posted about this in their Outlook email setup website saying, "This can be a lot to handle, so helping you get to the email you care about is one of our top priorities, you will be getting more control over how your emails are sorted, filed or bumped to the top of your inbox. You can create multi-condition and multi-action rules and set your inbox to organize itself automatically. Advanced Rules allow you to combine your existing rules together and customize them to suit you."

The main feature of Outlook Rules is that it is pretty easy to configure them; even a person with little knowledge about the program will be able to sort his emails easily using the Rules in outlook.com. One of the new features of the email service is the Reply-In button, clicking on this button will allow the users to see the message and the reply message side by side, there is no need for opening a new box or page for sending the reply. With all these new features, it is for sure that Microsoft is set to conquer the email market again.