John Lister

Figures for August have led one site to suggest that Microsoft's new Edge browser is not that widely used. However, the difficulty of calculating such figures means it is far too early to call it a bust. The figures come from Statcounter, which is a ... professional service for website owners which tracks web visitors. As well as giving individual sites details of their visitors, Statcounter collates the data from all of its customers to come up with estimates for web use as a whole. It believes the number and variety of sites it tracks makes this a reasonably accurate estimate. Edge Figures ... (view more)

According to Microsoft, 75 million devices are already running Windows 10. That's an impressive total, though the company still has a long way to go to hit its target of one billion users within the first three years. The figures came in a series of ... Twitter posts by Yusuf Mehdi, the Microsoft executive responsible for marketing Windows. The 75 million figure comes just under a month after Windows 10's release, with 14 million downloads alone on launch day. (Source: windows.com ) It's hard to compare the Windows 10 early adoption rate with Microsoft's previous operating system. While ... (view more)

Companies that don't do enough to protect customer data against hacking are more likely to be sued, thanks to a court ruling this week. A federal appeals court rejected an argument that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) overstepped its powers by ... suing a company over three hacking incidents. The company is question is the Wyndham Hotel chain, in which 619,000 customers' credit card data was leaked. According to the FTC, Wyndham failed to use suitably complex login details on accounts, stored card data on its servers in unencrypted form, and did not use adequate firewalls to protect the ... (view more)

A newly published study suggests the vast majority of Windows 10 users "love" the system and most of its features. However, the methodology of the study is shaky to say the least. The figures come from Brandwatch, a company that tracks public ... sentiment about particular products and companies online. It claims its methods help find out what ordinary users are thinking, rather than rely on media reports. For this study, Brandwatch gathered together data from 7,000 people who had posted about Windows 10 on Twitter, Facebook, Internet forums and other online outlets. It then analyzed ... (view more)

Reports that Windows 10 stops Google's Chrome browser from running appear to be only partially correct. While the problem does exist, it only affects people running test editions of Windows 10 which are not available to everyone. The problem affects ... the version of Chrome designed for 64-bit PCs. If the problem strikes, the browser simply fails to show any page and instead displays the familiar "Aw Snap!" error message. It appears to affect all editions of 64-bit Chrome, from the standard edition through the various test editions, such as developer and Canary. (Source: ... (view more)

Some of the terms and conditions applying to Windows 10 users appear to give Microsoft permission to block software it suspects is illegal. However, it seems the clause may be a case of a careless cut-and-paste, rather than a firm policy. The text ... appears in the Microsoft Services Agreement. That's not strictly the terms and conditions of Windows 10 itself, but rather Microsoft's various online services. It's come to wider attention because so many of these services are used by apps built into Windows 10. Microsoft Can Block Games and Peripherals Among the agreement's clauses ... (view more)

Microsoft's patch process for Windows 10 is going far from smoothly, with some PCs locked in a constant reboot. It's reawakened the debate about how the new Window 10 update system will work. With Windows 10 intended to be the final "brand new" ... edition of the operating system, Microsoft has ditched its traditional policy of a monthly 'Patch Tuesday' security update, including emergency patches in between when needed. Service Packs were also previously released once every year or so after gathering enough patches, along with offering a few new features. Instead the plan ... (view more)

While most of the response to Windows 10 has been positive, it might not be for everyone. The good news is that downgrading from Windows 10 to your previous operating system is a relatively simple task. Exactly how you can go about it depends on ... which of three categories you fall into: whether you upgraded using the "Get Windows 10" app (via Windows Update); whether you used a DVD or USB drive with Windows 10 media; or, whether you bought a computer with Windows 10 pre-installed. "Easy Downgrade" Method: Within 30 Days If you used Windows Update to upgrade to Windows 10 ( ... (view more)

With the launch of Windows 10 comes a brand new Start Menu, which now more closely resembles its predecessors - something that's good news for many users on desktop and notebooks PCs. However, the new Windows 10 Start Menu brings plenty of options ... for tweaking, along with the odd glitch. Windows 10 Start Menu Customizable When Windows 8 was released, the lack of a Start Menu angered and confused many PC enthusiasts. As such, many third-party Start Menu programs were developed to replace the 'metro' style interface with a more traditional look. The good news is that the majority these ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed it is using customers' Internet connections to distribute Windows 10 to other users. While it doesn't appear to pose a serious security risk, switching off the feature is a bit tricky. The feature is officially known as ... Windows Update Delivery Optimization , or "WUDO". It involves putting some downloaded Windows 10 files into a temporary directory area on a users computer; the files are then made available to other computers over the Internet. Microsoft insists no personal files or folders are shared in this way. The same system will also apply to ... (view more)