sims deluxe edition download freeplay dress shop hop online without downloadingoffice 10 free download with crackspace 1999 theme download
This website uses cookies to further improve your experience. By viewing our content, you might be accepting the utilization of cookies. To find out more and change your cookie settings, please view our cookie policy.
Windows 8 is Microsofts most essential launch since 1995 because it unifies mobile and PC computing.
With 2015 drawing into a close, its a pointer to yet again pull out the crystal ball and discover if we might make some predictions about what the New Year might bring.
Netflix releases a different Windows 10 universal app however the update for Windows 10 smartphones continues to be in the works.
Microsoft is about to make Windows 10 Mobile open to existing Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users starting at the beginning of 2016, as an alternative to this month, officials are saying.
Microsoft are at it again together with the Windows 10 upgrade nag screens, together with the latest one giving users of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 the alternative to upgrade now or upgrade tonight.
Windows 10 users who would like to add biometric authentication on their PC can perform that with Tobiis eye-tracking device.
Microsoft says its cross-company data sharing efforts mean Windows 10 Edge can block perhaps the nastiest web attacks.
Microsofts latest technical preview introduces Hyper-V Containers, polishes Nano Server and makes life easier for each developer and trainer with nested virtualisation.
In Beijing, Microsoft and also the Chinese government sign an agreement that could bring Windows 10 to government-owned computers.
Just before holiday lull, Microsoft released a whole new Windows 10 preview build today. Set your expectations accordingly: there aren't any new features located in build 11082. Instead, a lot of the work is in planning for an accelerated release pace in 2016.
The software giant is pushing users faraway from old versions of Internet Explorer. But how secure, dependant on vulnerabilities, is Windows 10s new browser?
Free and cheap personal and organization cloud storage is everywhere. Heres how you can decide which you are right for you.
Microsoft has unpublished temporarily the most recent Windows 10 Mobile build looking at the servers whilst it works to fix installation problems.
Microsoft apologises for all you frustration that it is Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 have caused customers.
Now that Windows 10 has an browser written less a desktop program but as being a universal app, its a way to judge how powerful the WinRT app model is.
What do I remember most about 2015? Ill explain to you what it truly is; is incessant nagging by Windows, OS X and iOS to upgrade to the most recent version, try new services, and acquire more stuff.
Planning to generate the switch from your Windows PC to Mac within the holidays? Heres what you ought to know.
Images in the key releases from three decades in the operating systems history.
In go big or go back home world of tech, these items went home.
This tough tablet may be bumped, scraped, and dropped, and in many cases survive spills and dirt. Its also secure through-and-through, using a trusted secure module chip as well as a fingerprint reader.
If youre experiencing complications with Windows 10, necessities such as built-in tools you can utilize for troubleshooting and repair.
Windows 10 doesnt allow you to secure your privacy, but it might be done.
If you choose to do a lots of writing for work, a transportable system allows that you do it anywhere. These are the best Ive used.
Data breaches, hacks, and vulnerable software makes it easier previously for a hacker to acquire access to important computer data. These easy steps can help mitigate it happening inside the first place.
This 14-inch Windows laptop is ready for both the office and home. We use it through its paces to determine how it fares.
This 8-inch Windows tablet would be the first with Lenovos Anypen technology which allows using any pen or pencil to publish or draw within the screen. We go practical with it to discover how it fares.
Windows 8 was full of bold ideas, meant to move Windows forward within a giant leap. Three years later, as Windows 10 nears its release date, more and more innovative ideas have passed away. Heres a short look at whats been tossed away, and why.
The first Windows 10 release especially focused at phones is finally available. Heres what youll find inside.
The intriguing HP Sprout is really a next-generation pc combining an all-in-one PC, a projector-scanner unit, a little mat plus a custom Windows-integrated workspace.
If you employ a Mac, youre gonna want to take a short look at these quirky little add-ons. Each one could help you save time, increase productivity, and minimize frustration.
Want to have more from a Windows Phone in the office? Download the best of such apps and improve your productivity inside workplace.
A combination of compromises and extras makes one in the last Nokia smartphones an intriguing proposition.
In an hour-long ZDNet webinar held on May 16th at high noon, Ed Bott explored Windows 8 implementation methods for IT decision makers.
The finishing touches are now being put for the code and Windows 8 is only about ready for prime would it be? There are still a great deal of questions across the new Metro UI, the Start Menu and support for your Windows OSs with the recent past. Join host Jonas Tichenor together with Windows experts and authors Ed Bott and Rafael Rivera while they breakdown Microsofts latest offering since it prepares hitting the market.
Microsoft has already established over 2million downloads of the company's Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a mere one day, Redmond says. But why should Windows users have got all the fun? Today, well show you the best way to install it when you a Mac user.
This video was recorded at a live ZDNet webcast on March 1, 2012.
Windows 8 is resulting this year, Windows 8 Consumer Preview will likely be out later this month, along with the burning question for you is: does anybody care? ZDNet editor and long-time Linux proponent Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols claims Windows 8 are going to be DOA. Meanwhile, ZDNet Government and DIY-IT editor David Gewirtz who claims all systems annoy him to a single degree or some other, claims Windows 8 can be used to stay, so it matters are the real deal work, and thus will Windows 9. In this video, originally presented like a live webcast on Feburary 15, 2012, here two opposing thoughts about whether Windows is relevant in the world where iPads, Android devices, and also Linux are grabbing a growing number of consumer attention:Discover why SJVN as hes known for the blog-o-sphere claims which the new Windows Metro user-interface has already been stillborn and why Windows is simply no longer why Gewirtz who recently vowed to advance his servers time for Windows, with mixed technical results, and 1000s of crazed ZDNet comments, claims that Windows has arrived to stay, new Microsoft UIs in many cases are imperfect to begin with, plus the Microsoft juggernaut aren't going to be about why the Post-PC era isnt really here yet and why most productive people cant really survive with out a desktop PC or you make use of computers inside your business, Windows are going to be a factor. Dont miss this video featuring CBS Interactives Distinguished Lecturer David Gewirtz, considered one of Americas leading cyberdefense experts, and ZDNet Contributing Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, certainly one of Americas most-read technology popcorn. Three ugly, middle-aged men argue about os. It just doesnt get any a lot better than this! Sparks will fly and there will likely be fireworks
Apples Siri set the pace for voice control on smartphones this past year, and competitors are coming out from the woodwork to challenge Apples new yardstick. Can Ziggy for your Windows Phone 7 usurp the voice throne?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previews new OSes, Kinect features.
At CES in Las Vegas, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest foretells Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with what to expect from the program giant in 2012. Ballmer previews the brand new Windows phone OS, Windows 8s metro UI and new Xbox Kinect features.
At CES in Las Vegas, Intels Mooly Eden updates the companys ultrabook efforts, including a concept transparent touchscreen display screen on the back side, coupled using the Windows 8 Metro interface.
Microsoft has confirmed which it will enhance new hardware for Windows users to embrace its motion-based control platform Kinect. Great news? Perhaps not.
At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer covers why users can buy a Windows phone as an alternative to an Android device: You donвt should be a computer scientist to utilize a Windows phone and you choose to do to use and Android phone.
A pivotal moment in Apples history, CEO Steve Jobs announces iTunes for Windows on October 16, 2003. Jobs stated at that time, Its most likely the best Windows app ever written. The release have also been considered a superb strategic move by Apple because, for your first time, Windows users could buy music from Apples website, definitely a feel with the Apple consumer experience.
At the Build conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft shows off Windows 8, another version of the company's operating system
At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Brett Carpenter, from Microsoftвs Windows ecosystem group, exhibits Windows 8. Its Metro-style UI has live tiles that could be programmed using existing tools and languages. It also supports full-screen apps.
Most on the compromises ASUS makes to achieve an inexpensive price point due to this 14-inch Windows laptop are acceptable, nonetheless its short on SSD storage along with the screen quality is disappointing.
This business laptop crams two batteries inside a svelte yet rugged form to create it all to easy to take it about the road.
The technical preview of Windows 10 is heavy on tools with the power desktop user that people will desire to evaluate, nevertheless the most important features will probably be visible later inside preview cycle.
If you'll need a Windows 8.1 computer thats flexible enough as a tablet, a laptop in the event you add the optional keyboard as well as if you add the optional docking station a desktop PC, then your Surface Pro 3 manages the trade-offs along with anything on this market.
This affordable 8-inch Atom-based Bay Trail Windows 8.1 tablet incorporates a nice IPS screen and delivers all-day life cycle of battery under light usage modes. Limited screen size, internal storage and processing power prevents it from being greater companion device for mobile professionals though.
The 10.1-inch Transformer Book T100 is often a well made and attractively priced hybrid Windows 8.1 tablet. However, its moderate specification and small size allow it to be difficult to recommend when your primary Windows device.
The Haswell-based Surface Pro 2 delivers improved performance and life of the battery, as well as dual-angle kickstand is usually welcome. However, the Pro 2s unchanged chassis design feels bulkier and heavier than in the past, also it becomes very costly when fully accessorised.
The Lumia 1020 includes a truly impressive 41-megapixel camera along with a high-quality 4.5-inch AMOLED screen, however some Windows Phone fans might do better while using 920 as well as a good dedicated camera.
This excellent Windows 8 tablet/ultrabook hybrid includes a well-designed keyboard docking mechanism, typically solid build quality as well as a specification suitable to mainstream business use. It incorporates a hefty sale price, though, along with the lack of SD-based storage expansion is perplexing.
The Lumia 925 is really a slimmer and lighter Windows Phone 8 handset than its 920 predecessor, using a neater plus more ergonomic design. It lacks integrated wireless charging but supports LTE and NFC, and it has an excellent 4.5in. AMOLED screen.
Although its nice and delivers decent life of the battery, the ElitePad 900s mix of a basic Atom-based tablet and also a range of optional extras is surely an expensive approach to build a work-ready system.
The chunky Toughpad FZ-G1 features a high-resolution outdoor-visible screen, is moderately rugged, and delivers decent performance and middling battery life using the standard battery. The biggest drawback, however, may be the price.
Although its expensive for just a moderate-performing Atom-based Windows 8 tablet, the ThinkPad Tablet 2s design and construction are excellent, while pen support is really a real bonus.
The Atom-based Latitude 10 is short on performance, but delivers excellent life cycle of battery в especially together with the optional 4-cell battery. Although some aspects with the industrial design and building could be better, this is really a decent business-class Windows 8 tablet.
The swivel-screen XPS 12 offers clever design, solid build quality along with a high-quality if reflective screen. Battery life just isn't great, though, and also this system is severely short of connectivity в even by ultrabook standards.
How should we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways. Since America Online emerged on the belly of your BBS called Quantum PC-Link in 1989, users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up numbers, rapacious marketing, in-your-face advertising, questionable billing practices, inexcusably poor customer support, and enough spam to last a lifetime. And each of the while, AOL remained more pricey than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the worlds biggest ISP the very best spot on our number of bottom feeders.
AOL succeeded initially by targeting newbies, using brute-force marketing methods. In the 90s you couldnt open a novel PC World included or perhaps your mailbox lacking an AOL disk falling out in clumps of it. This carpet-bombing technique yielded big numbers: At its peak, AOL claimed 34 million subscribers worldwide, community . never revealed the amount of were just using up their free hours.
Once AOL had you in their clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming which it continued to bill customers whenever they had requested cancellation with their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a 60 minute.25 million fine towards the state of New York and opted for change its cancellation policies-though the agreement covered only people in New York.
Ultimately the Net itself-which AOL subscribers were finally in a position to access in 1995- made the support shortcomings painfully obvious. Prior to that, though AOL offered plenty of their own online content, it walled from the greater Internet. Once people realized what content was available elsewhere for the Net, they started wondering why these people were paying AOL. And as America transferred to broadband, many left their sluggish AOL accounts behind. AOL has become busy rebranding itself like a content provider, not an access service.
Though America Online has revealed some improvement lately-with better browsers and e-mail tools, fewer obnoxious ads, scads of broadband content, and innovative features including parental controls-it hasn't ever overcome the stigma to be the online service for those who dont know any benefit.
Real annoying: The RealPlayer on the late 90s worked fine, nonetheless its entourage included aggressive installations, uninvited popups, and insidious Registry rewrites.
Real annoying: The RealPlayer with the late 90s worked fine, nevertheless its entourage included aggressive installations, uninvited popups, and insidious Registry rewrites.
In order to your browser to produce the following paragraph this web site must download new software; please wait. Sorry, the requested codec had not been found. Please change your system.
A frustrating inability to play media files-due simply to change regularly file formats-was only section of Reals problem. RealPlayer also a disturbing means of making itself a touch too much in your house on your PC-installing itself as being the default media player, taking liberties along with your Windows Registry, appearing annoying messages which were really just advertisements, therefore on.
And several of RealNetworks habits were more troubling. For example, right after RealJukeBox appeared in 1999, security researcher Richard M. Smith discovered which the software was assigning an original ID to each and every user and phoning home using the titles of media files played on it-while failing to disclose all of this in their privacy policy. Turns out that RealPlayer G2, which have been out because the previous year, also broadcast unique IDs. After a tsunami of bad publicity plus a handful of lawsuits, Real issued a patch to prevent it from tracking users listening habits. But under a year later, Real is at hot water again for tracking the habits of the company's RealDownload download-management software customers.
To be fair, RealNetworks deserves credit for offering a complimentary media player and then for hanging within against Microsofts relentless onslaught. We appreciate the reality that theres an alternative choice to Windows Media Player; we wish it were a greater one.
Back in 1995, when RAM cost 30 to 50 a megabyte and Windows 95 apps were demanding a lot more of it, thinking about doubling your body memory by installing a 30 software package sounded mighty tempting. The 700, 000 users who bought Syncronyss SoftRAM products certainly thought so. Unfortunately, this isn't what they got.
It ends up that all SoftRAM really did was expand the dimensions of Windows harddrive cache-something a moderately savvy user could do with no extra software within a minute. And even then, the performance boost was negligible. The FTC dubbed Syncronyss claims false and misleading, as well as the company was eventually instructed to pull the merchandise from this market and issue refunds. After releasing a number of other bad Windows utilities, this company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999. It aren't going to be missed.
This might function as worst version of Windows ever released-or, at the very least, ever since the dark times Windows 2.0. Windows Millennium Edition aka Me, and the Mistake Edition was Microsofts follow-up to Windows 98 SE for home users. Shortly after Me appeared in late 2000, users reported problems setting it up, received it to run, getting hired to work with other hardware or software, and configuring it to stop running. Aside from that, Me was very beneficial.
To its credit, Me introduced features later loved by Windows XP, for instance system restore. Unfortunately, it could actually also restore files you won't ever wanted to discover again, like viruses that youd just deleted. Forget Y2K; this became the real millennium bug.
When you stick a music CD to your computer, you shouldnt have to worry who's will turn your PC in to a hackers plaything. But thats what exactly Sony BMG Music Entertainments music discs did in 2005. The discs harebrained copy protection software installed a rootkit that managed to make it invisible extending its love to antispyware or antivirus software. Any moderately clever cyber attacker could then utilize the same rootkit to cover, say, a keylogger to capture your money information, or maybe a remote-access Trojan to make your PC in a zombie.
Security researcher Dan Kaminsky estimated that half a million machines were infected because of the rootkit. After first downplaying the condition and then issuing a fix that made things worse, Sony BMG accessible to refund users money and replace the faulty discs. Since then, the record company has become sued the wazoo; a federal court judge recently approved a settlement inside national class action suit. Making your machine totally prone to attacks-isnt that Microsofts job?
Amazon Shop buttons are programmatically mounted on all reviews, no matter what products final review scores. Our parent company, IDG, receives advertisement revenue for shopping activity generated because of the links. Because the buttons are attached programmatically, they must not be interpreted as editorial endorsements.
Your message is sent.
There was a blunder emailing this web site.
screenSize:971 1115, scriptTags: ;//-
from our new site, Greenbot
screenSize:971 1115, scriptTags: ;//-
By submitting your email address you might be consenting to obtain email notifications from IDG. You may withdraw your consent without notice. Please make reference to our policy for more information.
screenSize:971 1115, scriptTags: ;//-
screenSize:971 1115, scriptTags: ;//-
PCWorld makes it possible to navigate the PC ecosystem to get the products you want plus the advice you need to have the job done.
As I write this in March 2010, the personal-computer world is for the cusp of the great transition.
Rotating magnetic disks happen to be the fastest solution to store huge amounts of digital data for, literally, decades. But they re finally being phased out. And now everyone is having more trouble identifying how you study the speed of your drive.
It used fifty 24-inch platters to hold about enough data first JPEG photo from the current consumer camera.
Around 1980, the initial hard drives well suited for use with home computers arrived. They was able to fit more data on each of the platters usually eight-inch, or 5.25-inch with the famous original ST-506 versus the 350 Disk File crammed onto all fifty of that 24-inchers.
If you don t need more than about 100 gigabytes of storage with your desktop PC or laptop - and laptop users, especially, may be able for getting away with significantly less - then a only disk drive you now need can be an SSD. And it ll only add 2 or 3 hundred bucks US or Australian; as I write this both currencies are pretty close in value towards the price of your personal computer.
If you need a lot of storage then the pure SSD solution remains economically insane. Per gigabyte, SSDs still cost a simple 25 times approximately magnetic storage. Or much, far more, in the event you want a really high-capacity, extra-fast SSD.
But there s nothing stopping you utilizing a modest-sized SSD when your boot device, to provide all the lightning-booting joy in the SSD crowd, and putting your bulky data one or more cheap 1.5-terabyte hard disk drives.
For most PC users, your bulky data includes various applications and games, whose performance will probably be at least somewhat limited from the speed with the drive they re on. If one's body drive is definitely an SSD, though, software placed on other drives will still perform significantly better whenever the factor limiting the interest rate of some task will not be how fast your application files is usually accessed, but alternatively a disk-hitting operating-system function.
There s no definite line the place that the improved performance of SSDs outweighs their higher price. It s clear that people re getting pretty near this line, but there s no solution to be specific about this.
One reason due to this is that hard disk drives are continuing their mind-boggling capacity climb and price drop, so that 2Tb drives will quickly be the dollars-per-gigabyte value winners. It s tough to find a shrewd economic reason to relocate on at a technology your kind of price - performance curve.
The general flavour of this are going to be familiar to anybody who needs to live around the cutting edge of consumer computing.
Like, there s the TRIM command for SSDs, whose purpose is to avoid the peculiar low-level data allocation behaviour of Flash-RAM SSDs from causing them to get slower the more you make use of them.
TRIM is built-into new and exciting os, and may be run as being a kind of SSD defrag using a separate enter in older OSes, plus it s all great. Except it's going to usually, otherwise always, stop you from recovering any deleted data after having a TRIM command has already established its way with all the relevant Flash memory cells.
One big reason people can t discover when to switch from magnetic-disk to SSD, though, is who's s not actually very very easy to meaningfully look at the speed of the hard drive, or perhaps SSD.
I wrote about reification in this particular very column, ninety-three issues ago. Reification could be the fallacy of treating an abstraction like it were a true thing. Like, as an illustration, if because IQ tests exist, and acquire pretty consistent results, there has to be a general intelligence that such tests are measuring.
Latency is the place long it takes for any drive to respond into a command. For a disk drive, it s the time it will require the drive to maneuver its heads, pick the best one, and lose time waiting for its platters to spin on the right position for doing this to start accepting or delivering data.
Modern hard disks have a random-seek access duration of around ten milliseconds. An SSD doesn't have any moving parts, so its latency is quite a bit lower, though less much lower perhaps you may think.
Transfer rate is how rapid the data moves, as soon as the drive has become around to starting a read or write.
Both these specifications truly must be the bedrock statistics which all disk-subsystem performance is constructed.
But you shouldn t bother about either of those.
Computer enthusiasts love benchmarks. It s like putting the car on a dynamometer, or whipping it around an autocross track. Except computer benchmarks in many cases are free, and don t require that you budge from the comfy chair.
You can, however, spend many time benchmarking harddrives, and have no actual useful information in any respect.
Sustained transfer minute rates are particularly irrelevant. If you re copying big files from drive they are driving then raw drive speed might make a difference; the abovementioned 2Tb consumer drives have sustained transfer rates of at the very least 60 megabytes per second - above 100 for your faster outer tracks. If you re copying from drive to drive using a modern PC, you ll receive a sizeable slice of their raw speed as actual transfer rate for that data you cherish, after all on the real-world overheads and bottlenecks.
But those overheads and bottlenecks are, still, large. Multiple drives inside the one computer will invariably give you very noticeably less compared to the single-drive theoretical maximum performance.
Today s ultra-high-capacity consumer drives move much data underneath the heads per second that the few 5400RPM green models can saturate the actually-available bandwidth of SATA - 1. You very probably really don t need more transfer rate than that; it s physically impossible for practically any normal desktop-computer task to make use of it. Background media-file or antivirus scans will use a ton of drive bandwidth, nevertheless they generally include lots of seeks, which render the immense sustained transfer rate of high-density 3.5-inch drives just about irrelevant. An SSD having a significantly lower sustained transfer rate can finish a task in this way a great deal faster, is actually less effect for the system s performance for simultaneous other tasks, because with the SSD s very quickly seek speed.
For other everyday tasks - starting Windows, switching in one big application to an alternative, doing stuff while a BitTorrent client sucks down data inside the background - raw drive transfer rate could be almost completely irrelevant. The interaction on the moving parts and firmware, the motherboard data buses, OS disk management and whatever software you re running adds a lot of variables towards the calculation that transfer rate gets lost from the noise.
Usually, when someone s copying a huge file from a single drive to a different, they re not doing it from a single drive to a different in that one computer. Any current disk drive, and a great deal of old ones, is going to be faster compared to the transfer rate of USB 2 or gigabit Ethernet. If you ve got a FireWire 800 external drive then your hard disk within it may be competent to influence transfer speed, a lttle bit; likewise for USB 3.
It s also possible to fail at the outset of your journey to figure out how slow a storage device is, by picking the incorrect benchmark software.
As a standard rule, the better a disk benchmark is to own, the less useful it can be.
People who think they re original nerd gangstas, yo, like to work with Iometer. It s liberal to download, and contains many obscure and technical settings, which ensure it is look all heavy-duty and high. As, indeed, it really is. But Iometer is meant to test drives for multi-user servers, that the gangstas are likely not actually building.
See also, teenage pirates who utilize the ultra-expensive server versions of Windows, simply because they can.
There are many Windows drive-speed testers that re pretty an easy task to use, yet give better-than-random results. HD Tach used to become decent choice, nevertheless it doesn t work upon RAID arrays, I m unsure if it behaves itself entirely properly in Vista/Win7 yet, and yes it won t do write tests if you do not register it. You might or might not exactly prefer HD Tune, containing more features, even inside the free version.
My current choice when I find myself can not talk my solution of doing drive benchmarks is h2benchw, on the German computer magazine Computertechnik or c t, in short. It s a command-line utility, along with the main documentation is inside a language I do not understand. So it has to be good.
H2benchw is capable of doing a wide variety of tests, including write tests - but since there s poor quality way for write benchmarks on drives that incorporate data to cope achievable data, h2benchw will still only do write tests if your drive isn t even partitioned.
H2benchw even has application tests, which try and mimic items like swap-file use, Photoshop and virus scanning - you already know, the sorts of items that you actually do that has a drive if you re not benchmarking it. But the readme, with refreshing honesty, says the app tests are outdated and unreliable.
I think the only real current publicly-available benchmark package containing somewhat reliable application tests will be the HDD Test Suite in PCMark, from what once was called Mad Onion but is actually boringly called Futuremark. You don t have the HDD Test Suite inside the free version of PCMark, though. The risk free of PCMark Vantage, the latest version with the benchmark, allows you to run the Basic Edition benchmark including disk once. Then it s US6.95 for any Basic license or US19.95 to have an Advanced one.
The concept of benchmarks would be to let you compare the performance of numerous hardware. Simple transfer-rate and seek-speed numbers, whenever they re expressed by non-broken software, actually are typically pretty good for your.
They still don t mean much, though. The drive which has a 40% higher sustained transfer rate probably won t be noticeably faster in normal use. People dazzled by impressive but irrelevant benchmarks could also very easily conclude that some change renders a big difference to system performance, gets hotter hasn t actually improved anything in any way.
There s a tremendous difference between SSDs and harddrives, however you don t have to have a benchmark program to show you that. And because consumer SSDs will still be a pretty young technology, benchmarks can provide weird results as long as they run into some odd optimisation trick. Or give precisely the same results, even after having a tweak that s made an SSD work better. I am not even close to convinced that a top-of-the-line consumer benchmark like PCMark Vantage is absolutely reliable, with this.
If you re just having a drive, not reviewing it, though, exclusively use it.
There are just three speeds it could possibly actually have, of course: Blinding fast, tolerably fast, or not quick enough.
I suppose a benchmark which simply told you that wouldn t sell adequately.
All content Copyright Daniel Rutter 1998-2015.
As I write this in March 2010, the personal-computer world is around the cusp of your great transition.
Rotating magnetic disks happen to be the fastest solution to store huge amounts of digital data for, literally, decades. But they re finally being phased out. And now consumers are having much more trouble working out how you look at the speed of your drive.
It used fifty 24-inch platters to hold about enough data for just one JPEG photo coming from a current consumer video camera.
Around 1980, the 1st hard drives appropriate for use with home computers arrived. They were able to fit a bit more data on each of the platters usually eight-inch, or 5.25-inch with the famous original ST-506 compared to 350 Disk File crammed onto all fifty of their 24-inchers.
If you don t need more than about 100 gigabytes of storage within your desktop PC or laptop - and laptop users, specifically, may be able for getting away with a lot less - then your only hard disk drive you now need is undoubtedly an SSD. And it ll only add 2 or 3 hundred bucks US or Australian; as I write this both the currencies are pretty close in value towards the price of your personal computer.
If you need a lot of storage after that pure SSD solution remains economically insane. Per gigabyte, SSDs still cost a fairly easy 25 times around magnetic storage. Or much, additional, should you want a really high-capacity, extra-fast SSD.
But there s nothing stopping you by using a modest-sized SSD when your boot device, to offer you all the lightning-booting joy in the SSD crowd, and putting your bulky data one or more cheap 1.5-terabyte hard disks.
For most PC users, your bulky data includes various applications and games, whose performance will likely be at least somewhat limited because of the speed from the drive they re on. If one's body drive is surely an SSD, though, software set up on other drives will still perform significantly better whenever the factor limiting the velocity of some task just isn't how fast the exact application files could be accessed, but rather a disk-hitting operating-system function.
There s no definite line the place that the improved performance of SSDs outweighs their higher price. It s clear that individuals re getting pretty all-around this line, but there s no approach to be specific about this.
One reason with this is that computer drives are continuing their mind-boggling capacity climb and price drop, in a way that 2Tb drives will be the dollars-per-gigabyte value winners. It s hard to find a smart economic reason to advance on coming from a technology your kind of price - performance curve.
The general flavour of this will probably be familiar to anybody who wants to live around the cutting edge of consumer computing.
Like, there s the TRIM command for SSDs, whose purpose is to stop the peculiar low-level data allocation behaviour of Flash-RAM SSDs from which makes them get slower the more you have them.
TRIM is incorporated into new and exciting systems, and could be run like a kind of SSD defrag using a separate put in older OSes, also it s all great. Except it is going to usually, or even always, stop you from recovering any deleted data after the TRIM command has experienced its way with all the relevant Flash memory cells.
One big good reason that people can t decide when to switch from magnetic-disk to SSD, though, is so it s not actually very an easy task to meaningfully look at the speed of an hard drive, or perhaps SSD.
I wrote about reification with this very column, ninety-three issues ago. Reification will be the fallacy of treating an abstraction as though it were a genuine thing. Like, as an example, let's assume that because IQ tests exist, and have pretty consistent results, there ought to be a general intelligence that such tests are measuring.
Latency is just how long it takes to get a drive to respond with a command. For a disk drive, it s the time it will require the drive to go its heads, select the best one, and watch for its platters to spin towards the right position because of it to start accepting or delivering data.
Modern hard disk drives have a random-seek access duration of around ten milliseconds. An SSD doesn't have a moving parts, so its latency is a lot lower, though less much lower perhaps you might think.
Transfer rate is how rapid the data moves, as soon as the drive has got around to starting a read or write.
Both these specifications must be the bedrock statistics on what all disk-subsystem performance is made.
But you shouldn t bother about either of those.
Computer enthusiasts love benchmarks. It s like putting your automobile on a dynamometer, or whipping it around an autocross track. Except computer benchmarks are sometimes free, and don t require you to definitely budge from a comfy chair.
You can, however, spend many time benchmarking computer drives, and end up getting no actual useful information in any way.
Sustained transfer minute rates are particularly irrelevant. If you re copying big files from drive drive an automobile then raw drive speed might make a difference; the abovementioned 2Tb consumer drives now take over sustained transfer rates of at the least 60 megabytes per second - around 100 with the faster outer tracks. If you re copying from drive to drive using a modern PC, you ll receive a sizeable slice of these raw speed as actual transfer rate with the data you love, after all with the real-world overheads and bottlenecks.
But those overheads and bottlenecks are, still, large. Multiple drives from the one computer will forever give you very noticeably less compared to the single-drive theoretical maximum performance.
Today s ultra-high-capacity consumer drives move much data in the heads per second that including the few 5400RPM green models can saturate the actually-available bandwidth of SATA - 1. You very probably really don t need more transfer rate than that; it s physically impossible for practically any normal desktop-computer task to make use of it. Background media-file or antivirus scans will use a ton of drive bandwidth, nevertheless they generally include plenty of seeks, which render the immense sustained transfer rate of high-density 3.5-inch drives just about irrelevant. An SSD that has a significantly lower sustained transfer rate can develop a task similar to this a great deal faster, along with less effect for the system s performance for simultaneous other tasks, because with the SSD s extremely fast seek speed.
For other everyday tasks - starting Windows, switching from a single big application completely to another, doing stuff while a BitTorrent client sucks down data from the background - raw drive transfer rate might be almost completely irrelevant. The interaction in the moving parts and firmware, the motherboard data buses, OS disk management and whatever software you re running adds a lot of variables on the calculation that transfer rate gets lost inside the noise.
Usually, when someone s copying an enormous file from drive completely to another, they re not doing it derived from one of drive completely to another in that one computer. Any current hard disk, and many old ones, will probably be faster compared to the transfer rate of USB 2 or gigabit Ethernet. If you ve got a FireWire 800 external drive then a hard disk there may be in a position to influence transfer speed, a little; likewise for USB 3.
It s also possible to fail at the outset of your journey to figure out how quickly a storage device is, by picking an unacceptable benchmark software.
As a standard rule, the simpler a disk benchmark is to own, the less useful it truly is.
People who think they re original nerd gangstas, yo, like make use of Iometer. It s absolve to download, and contains many obscure and technical settings, which ensure it is look all heavy-duty and high. As, indeed, it really is. But Iometer is meant to test drives for multi-user servers, that the gangstas are usually not actually building.
See also, teenage pirates who utilize ultra-expensive server versions of Windows, because they can.
There are some Windows drive-speed testers that re pretty an easy task to use, yet give better-than-random results. HD Tach used as a decent choice, nonetheless it doesn t work directly on RAID arrays, I m unclear if it behaves itself entirely properly in Vista/Win7 yet, and yes it won t do write tests should you not register it. You might or may well not prefer HD Tune, that has more features, even from the free version.
My current choice when I find myself can not talk my way to avoid it of doing drive benchmarks is h2benchw, in the German computer magazine Computertechnik or c t, in abbreviation. It s a command-line utility, as well as the main documentation is inside a language I do not understand. So it should be good.
H2benchw are able to do a wide variety of tests, including write tests - but since there s no real way for write benchmarks on drives that have data to cope your data, h2benchw will undoubtedly do write tests if the drive isn t even partitioned.
H2benchw even has application tests, which make an effort to mimic stuff like swap-file use, Photoshop and virus scanning - you already know, the sorts of stuff that you actually do which has a drive whenever you re not benchmarking it. But the readme, with refreshing honesty, says the app tests are outdated and unreliable.
I think the only real current publicly-available benchmark package that's somewhat reliable application tests would be the HDD Test Suite in PCMark, from what was previously called Mad Onion but is currently boringly called Futuremark. You don t have the HDD Test Suite inside free version of PCMark, though. The free trial version of PCMark Vantage, the most up-to-date version from the benchmark, enables you to run the Basic Edition benchmark including disk once. Then it s US6. 95 for just a Basic license or US19. 95 with an Advanced one.
The concept of benchmarks is always to let you compare the performance of numerous hardware. Simple transfer-rate and seek-speed numbers, should they re created by non-broken software, actually tend to be pretty good to the.
They still don t mean much, though. The drive that has a 40% higher sustained transfer rate probably won t be noticeably faster in normal use. People dazzled by impressive but irrelevant benchmarks may very easily conclude that some change has created a big difference to system performance, gets hotter hasn t actually improved anything by any means.
There s a large difference between SSDs and harddrives, and you don t desire a benchmark program to show you that. And because consumer SSDs continue to be a pretty young technology, benchmarks gives weird results as long as they run into some odd optimisation trick. Or give the identical results, even from a tweak that s made an SSD work a whole lot better. I am not even close to convinced that also a top-of-the-line consumer benchmark like PCMark Vantage is absolutely reliable, due to this.
If you re just by using a drive, not reviewing it, though, don't use anything but it.
There are merely three speeds it may actually have, in fact: Blinding fast, tolerably fast, or not fast enough.
I suppose a benchmark that told you that wouldn t sell adequately.
How fast is really a hard drive? How long is really a piece of string?
All content Copyright Daniel Rutter 1998-2015.
Die Symbolik zu Zeiten von Windows 95: leicht bewГlkter Himmel.
Als Microsoft am 24. August vor 20 Jahren Windows 95 herausbrachte, trat es das Erbe des damals PC-typischen Disk Operating System DOS und seiner grafischen BedienoberflГche Windows an. Гberraschend viel, was damals neu war, wirkt noch heute nach.
Irgendwann hatte wohl jeder schon kurz nach dem Verkaufsstart von Windows 95 am 24. August 1995 die immer gleichen Witzeleien Гber Start satt, das man zum Beenden erst einmal drГcken musste heute trauern viele angesichts von Windows 8, 8.1 und 10 dem Start-MenГ nach. Ernsthaftere Diskussionen gab es vor 20 Jahren aber auch: Ob Windows 95 wirklich ein Betriebssystem oder doch nur wieder ein Aufsatz auf das altertГmliche DOS sei, darГber stritt man bei der MarkteinfГhrung heftig. AblГsen sollte Windows 95 jedenfalls das damals PC-typische DOS Disk Operating System mit seinem grafischen Bedienaufsatz Windows.
Um so erstaunlicher ist, dass Microsoft mit Windows 95 die Grundlage fГr die noch heute gebrГuchliche Windows-Software schuf. Die damals eingefГhrte Programmierschnittstelle fГr 32-Bit-Software namens Win32 benutzt auch heute noch die gГngige Windows-Software, wenn im Lauf der Jahre auch viele Schichten dazu gekommen sind und Win32 gen Ende der XP-Гra auch in einer 64-Bit-AusprГgung salonfГhig wurde.
Windows Logo vor bewГlkeltem Himmel в mit dieser Optik schickte Microsoft seinerzeit das grГГte Update aller Zeiten ins Rennen.
Klingt modern, war es aber nicht: Das Betriebssystem fГhrte zwar 32-Bit-Programme aus, war aber nach wie vor um ein DOS-artiges Betriebssystem fГr die kГnstlich per Segmentierung aufgebrezelte damalige Intel-x86-Architektur herumgestrickt. Das theoretisch mГgliche sichere Multitasking wurde oft und gern durch unkooperative 16-Bit-Programme zum Erliegen gebracht. Aus 16-Bit-Programmen fГr Windows Win16 und den alten DOS-Programmen в da vor allem Spielen в bestand seinerzeit aber nun mal die Software.
Microsoft indes hГrte das ungern, behob die KonstruktionsmГngel dennoch erst in Windows XP, indem man die technischen Grundlagen von Windows 95 Гber Bord warf. Auf Windows 95 folgten zunГchst drei grГГere Updates 95a, b und c, dann Windows 98 und Windows 98 Second Edition SE und schlieГlich die Millennium Ausgabe Windows ME. Erst sechs Jahre spГter hatte der Spuk mit Windows XP dann ein Ende; an dessen technischer Grundlage NT New Technolgy entwickelte Microsoft parallel schon seit 1991.
Als integrative Kraft in der zerstrittenen PC-Industrie erreichte Microsoft mit Windows 95 durchaus etwas. Man vereinte Hardware-Hersteller an einen Tisch, um die leidigen Ressourcen-Probleme des PC anzugehen: Die Erweiterungskarten, etwa zum Anschluss von Festplatten oder zum Erzeugen von Sound, benГtigten Interrupts und IO-Ports. Die wies man per Jumper oder Miniaturschalter zu. Konflikte waren dabei an der Tagesordnung. Mit Plug Play, einer einfachen Design-ErgГnzung fГr die damals gebrГuchlichen ISA-Bus-Karten, half die Software bei der Konfiguration в es war praktisch, kam aber leider zu spГt.
Apple zГhlte in seiner Werbung hГmisch die Neuerungen in Windows 95 auf, die fГr Mac-Anwender bereits selbstverstГndlich waren.
Optisch und von der Bedienung war Windows 95 ein deutlicher Fortschritt gegenГber Windows 3.1: Es warf die bescheuerte LГngenbeschrГnkung fГr Dateinamen auf acht plus drei Zeichen Гber Bord. Auf dem Desktop lieГen sich Dateien ablegen bei Windows 3.1 erschienen dort allenfalls minimierte Fenster. GelГschte Dateien landeten in einem Papierkorb und waren bei Bedarf wieder entnehmbar. Mac-Fans unkten, das sei alles bei Apple geklaut. Das StartmenГ wurde eingefГhrt, die Taskleiste und der Info-Bereich hatten ihr DebГt. Der Explorer ward geboren.
Windows 95 schuf auch die Grundlage fГr den Гrger, der Microsoft jahrelange Streiterei mit den WettbewerbshГtern einbrachte: Erst im Plus!-Paket 100 DM teuer, spГter auch regulГr hielt ein Web-Browser Einzug в heute eine selbstverstГndliche Ausstattung, aber die mitunter schon nervig gestaltete Browser-Wahl rГhrt daher. Mit Windows 95 schuf Microsoft auch die erste Fassung von DirectX und gewann so nach und nach Spieleentwickler fГr seine Plattform. Den Anfang machte eine Portierung des Ego-Shooters Doom.
Drei Dinge, die mit Windows 95 aufkamen seien noch erwГhnt: die inzwischen omniprГsenten Assistenten, die Schritt fГr Schritt durch lГngere Aufgaben fГhren, und die Registry als zentraler Ort zum Speichern von Konfigurationsinformationen. Letztere ist wohl ein Grund dafГr, dass SchlangenГl-Software aufkam: Optimierer, deren Wirksamkeit zweifelhaft ist, da sie sich oft an EintrГgen in der Registry zu schaffen machen, die gar nicht wirken. Allzu dreist trieb es damals SoftRAM und versprach fГr das speicherhungrige Windows 95 Speicherkompression, die niemals funktionierte.
Im August 1995 war die Verteilung auf dem Betriebssystemmarkt keineswegs so eindeutig wie heute: IBM mischte mit seinem OS/2 mit und hatte bis 1991 sogar mit Microsoft gemeinsam daran entwickelt. Steve Jobs hatte damals Apple verlassen und strickte mit Next an einem eigenen System es sollte spГter die Grundlage fГr das heutige Mac OSВX bilden. Unix in verschiedenen Darreichungsformen stand stГndig vor der TГr: Solaris, Xenix von Microsoft!, Unixware, Eurix und SCO в die meisten sind in der Versenkung verschwunden.
Dass sich Microsoft gegenГber so vielen Bewerbern durchsetzen konnte, hatte viele GrГnde, ein gewichtiger war sicher das Geschick bei der Vertragsgestaltung fГr Windows-Lizenzen, die mit neuen PCs verkauft wurden: Schon vor Windows 95 hatte die Handelsaufsicht in den USA moniert, dass Microsoft darin eine GebГhr pro Verkauf ausgehandelt hatte, die fГllig wurde, egal ob der PC-KГufer das Betriebssystem aus Redmond wollte oder nicht в fГr den VerkГufer war es damit unattraktiv geworden, Alternativen nur anzubieten. AuГerdem wurden Microsofts Dumping-Preise kritisiert.
All das focht Microsoft nicht allzu sehr an, fГllte aber die Kassen, sodass sich das Unternehmen die MarkteinfГhrung von Windows allerhand kosten lassen konnte, 200 Millionen US-Dollar. Bei den Rolling Stones kaufte man allein fГr 12 Millionen US-Dollar mit Start me Up die Musik fГr die Werbekampagne. Der Start-Sound stammte Гbrigens von Brian Eno und war viel gГnstiger. Mit diesen Mitteln jedenfalls gelang es Microsoft Windows 95 auch der breiten Masse bekannt zu machen. Es wurde berichtet, dass sich Leute in die Schlangen beim Verkaufsstart einreihten, die nicht einmal einen PC besaГen.
Die ersten Screenshots noch vor dem Start der Beta-Phase zeigten schon deutlich, wo die Reise hingehen sollte.
Am PC interessiertes Publikum hatte zu dem Zeitpunkt schon genug Гber Windows 95 gehГrt. In ct 11/1993 erschien der erste Bericht Гber die Entwicklung unter der Гberschrift Windows auf Mac getrimmt. Noch bevor der Beta-Test unter dem Codenamen Chicago angelaufen war, hatte einer der frГhen Test-Teilnehmer geplaudert. Die ersten AnsГtze fГr einen Desktop, fГr eine Dateisuche und den Taskbar waren zu erkennen. Es folgte ein grГГer angelegter Beta-Test Гber viele Runden.
Schon vor der CeBIT 1995 hatte Microsoft eine Vorab-Probierversion von Windows 95 angeboten. Die war weltweit mit 400.000 Exemplaren geplant und binnen kurzer Zeit vergriffen - die CD wurden damals per Post verschickt! Auf der CeBIT schlieГlich war Bill Gates zu Gast, recycelte dort aber eher lustlos ein bereits fГr die Comdex produziertes Filmchen und bekam die Quittung per Transparent, das einige Besucher entrollten. Alt-F4 stay at home groГen Lettern darauf.
Seinen ersten Datenschutzskandal hatte Windows 9x erst Mitte 1999. Es war aufgefallen, dass Microsoft die Kunden heimlich nummeriert. Egal ob man der Registrierung zustimmte oder nicht, sendete es einen Globally Unique Identifier GUID an Microsoft. Der enthielt die weltweit eindeutige MAC-Adresse der Netzwerkkarte, war also ein weltweit eindeutiges Merkmal. Dieser GUID tauchte in Office-Dokumenten und E-Mail auf und fand sich auch in Web-Cookies wieder в sogar in solchen, die nicht von Microsoft Гbermittelt wurden. In Redmond erklГrte man das alles als Versehen, stellte Werkzeuge zum Tilgen der GUID in Office-Dokumenten bereit und korrigierte die Registrierung.
Die Rezeption von Windows 95 war Гbrigens zunГchst eher verhalten. Ende 1995 war es in sechs Prozent der in den USA mit einem PC ausgestatteten Haushalte auszumachen und die HГlfte aller US-amerikanischen PC-Anwender gab an, Windows 95 weiterhin meiden zu wollen. So ct im Dezember 1995 und berichtete weiter: Selbst der unverbesserliche Optimist Gates schraubt seine Erwartungen zurГck. Im Rahmen einer Veranstaltung ГuГerte er am 27. November in New York erst wenn Computer weniger als 1000 US- kosteten, sie Sprache verstГnden, ordentlich Videofilme reproduzieren kГnnten und die schrecklichen Dateinamen ГberflГssig geworden wГren, kГnnte man davon ausgehen, dass sie als akzeptiertes Element im trauten Heim eingesetzt wГrden.
Interessant ist der Vergleich mit Windows 10. GrГГtes Upgrade aller Zeiten war ein Attribut von Windows 95. Anwender konnten von DOS und Windows 3.1 auf 95 aktualisieren. Der EinfГhrungspreis fГrs Update lag bei 200 DM Vollversion 400 DM. Heute kann es sich Microsoft leisten, ein Upgrade auf das aktuelle Windows 10 zu verschenken. Die UmsГtze macht das Unternehmen weiterhin durch den Verkauf von Lizenzen fГr neue PCs und im GeschГft mit Firmenkunden. Die paar Lizenzen und Upgrades, die noch separat im Handel gekauft werden, spielen lГngst keine tragende Rolle mehr.
Mit Windows 95 versuchte Microsoft auch, die KГufer an die eigens aufgeschienten Dienstleistungen zu binden: Das Internet nahm gerade Fahrt auf, CompuServe erfreute sich groГer Beliebtheit, wenn man so will als VorlГufer heutiger Foren, und AOL begann, mit seinen CDs Zeitschriften zu fluten. Microsoft probierte mit seinem Microsoft Network MSN eine Alternative zum Internet zu schaffen und auf einer Interactive Media Conference auch Content-Schaffende dafГr zu begeistern. Das gelang nicht. In Windows 10 sind es die Cloud-Dienste, die der Kunde mit dem Betriebssystem adoptiert und die Microsofts Zukunft sichern sollen.
Vor 40 Jahren legten Paul Allen und Bill Gates den Grundstein fГr Microsoft. Was mit BASIC begann und mit DOS, dann mit Windows und Office-Programmenв
Vor 25 Jahren: Windows 3.0 erscheint
Am 22. Mai vor 25 Jahren prГsentierte Bill Gates Windows 3.0 unter dem Slogan Witness the Transformation. Windows 3.0 transformierte Microsoft vonв
Auf den Tag vor 30 Jahren prГsentierte Microsoft in den USA Windows 1.01, begleitet von der grГГten Werbekampagne der jungen Firma. Nach mehrerenв
20. November 2015, 07:07 Uhr
Wer zu spГt kommt, den bestraft das Leben: Microsoft hatte sich mit der Renovierung von Windows Mobile damals zu viel Zeit gelassen.
Wer bei Notebooks vom Lebensmitteldiscounter nur an besonders gГnstige GerГte denkt, muss umlernen: Ab dem 21.12. gibt es bei Aldi SГd einenв
Anonymes Surfen versuchen Staatsspione durch einen Abgleich von FingerabdrГcken besuchter Webseiten zu konterkarieren. Forscher in den Niederlandenв
14. Dezember 2015, 15:54 Uhr
Der Ford Ranger wird nahezu weltweit angeboten, er ist in in 180 LГndern im Programm. Kaum ein anderes Ford-Modell hat eine Гhnliche Reichweite.
Ein ehemaliger Autofriedhof verseucht die schwedische Natur und wird dennoch von der Regierung unter Schutz gestellt. Heute ist er eine PilgerstГtteв
Genau ein Jahr nach der AnkГndigung des Endes der US-Blockadepolitik gegen Kuba wird immer deutlicher, wie der Inselstaat dieв
Das Verkehrsministerium arbeitet an Regeln fГr die Nutzung von zivilen Drohnen. Es soll deutliche Unterschiede zwischen privaterв
Twitternde SchГfer und Bauern, die ihre Daten in der Cloud ablegen: Landwirte im SГdwesten sind nicht technikscheu. Das kГnnteв
Haushalte mit einem Jahresstromverbrauch unter 6000 kWh sollen Zwangsdigitalisierung verhindern dГrfen.
Apple hilft mit Treibern und Tools bei der Windows-Installation auf dem Mac. Es sei denn es geht um Windows 8. Dennoch muss man auf das neuesteв
Sensationell, PC-Schreck: Der Atari ST wird 30 Jahre alt
Vor 30 Jahren brachte Atari mit dem 520 ST einen Computer auf den Markt, der zwar wie ein Heim-Computer aussah, aber dem PC und dem Mac Konkurrenzв
Wissenschaflter weisen nach: ein Klick auf eine Website reicht mitunter, um irgendwo Bits im Rechner kippen zu lassen.