Tag: windows

BlueStacks – The best Android emulator for Windows

Android emulators have been around for a while now and BlueStacks has always led the pack with its easy installation process, simple and intuitive interface and high performance. For those who are not aware what an Android emulator is; it is a simple application that can be easily downloaded and installed on your computer. Android emulators are available for Windows and Mac operating systems.

Once installed, an Android emulator functions as a platform allowing searching, downloading, installation and operating Android apps on your Windows or Mac personal computer. The interface of an Android emulator is similar to an Android device thereby enabling you to convert your PC into a fully functional Android device.

Android emulators have several practical applications. They allow you to operate an Android app on the bigger screen of your PC as compared to your Android mobile phone or tablet. You also do not have to invest in an Android phone simply because you want to play a game or use an application. Therefore, cost efficiency is another important benefit of using an Android emulator. If you have a Windows PC, you can simply install an Android emulator and further install the Android apps or games you want instead of buying an Android phone.

You can also enjoy your favourite Android games on a much larger screen and use the keyboard and mouse of your computer as gaming controllers. Android emulators have several benefits as they allow easy cross platform access to Android apps.

There have been several Android emulators that have been released over the years and quite a few of them are pretty efficient. BlueStacks however still rules over the rest and it continues to hold its position as the best Android emulator around even for Windows 10 platform.

BlueStacks is the most popular emulator and app player due to the convenience of use and several unique features. The BlueStacks application has a very simple and easy installation process. It has an offline installer as well as a split online installer. Once the installation process is complete, users can easily download Android APK files of their favourite apps and games from sources such as Google Play Store and install them on their computer. It is a simple double click installation process. The installed apps and games can be accessed through the BlueStacks menu that has an architecture similar to an Android operating system.

However, BlueStacks is a power guzzling application and requires significant RAM and processing power. You need to ensure that you have sufficient system resources to install and run BlueStacks. Even with sufficient RAM and processing power, running BlueStacks on your computer slows it down and you may find it difficult to concurrently use other software.

Despite this, BlueStacks gives a simple and easy access to Android apps on your Windows PC. If you have recently upgraded to Windows 10 and want to access Android apps on it, you can download the executable file of BlueStacks from its website for free and start using it right away.

Download Bluestacks for Windows

August 26, 2015
The Cross Platform Microsoft Office 2016

Microsoft has changed its strategies drastically with the release of Windows 10 and has shown the intent of developing products that are more customer centric and more convenient to operate. Windows 10, as announced by Microsoft is the last version of Windows that will receive frequent updates and is claimed by Microsoft to run efficiently on both desktop as well as mobile devices. What Microsoft has tried to do with this version of Windows is to pose a tough challenge for Android and iOS.

Moving another step in this direction is the latest version of Office. Office 2016 will be a cross platform application with versions for Mobile devices and computers. Microsoft Office is still one of the most preferred office suite in the world irrespective of the availability of other open source alternatives that are available for free.

What Microsoft seems to have got right this time is the fact that they have understood well is that though they are still the current market leaders, it will not be long before they may lose their leadership position to someone else. In the world of technology that is getting more inclined towards mobile devices and where users use multiple devices with different operating systems, Microsoft can no longer afford to keep its applications limited to function only on one particular platform or one particular device.

Microsoft therefore announced the launch of Office 2016 for Mac in the second week of July and the Android version will be available soon. After the release of these two versions, the company will release the mobile version of Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows devices. By the end of the year, the version for desktop will be launched.

Currently Office 2016 for Mac is available as an update to Office 365 users and the one time subscription option will be available from September. Though there have been previous versions of Office like Office for Mac 2011, by giving precedence to the Mac and Android versions by announcing their release before the version for Windows, Microsoft has displayed to have adopted a more flexible strategy this time.

Microsoft has termed this version of Office as a mobile first and Cloud first version as it is targeted primarily for mobile users. It seems to be going in the right direction with this version of Office with a more flexible approach that might turn the fortunes of the company that has just written off US$ 7.6 billion from its deal with Nokia and has decided to fire 7,800 of its staff.

August 10, 2015
How to Create Windows 10 Bootable USB drive

The latest operating system from Microsoft is out and the company is offering updates for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. These existing versions can either directly be updated or users can download Windows 10 and create a bootable disk for a fresh installation. Let’s look at the process that helps easily create bootable device for Windows 10 installation.

The final release of the much awaited Windows 10 finally out and is available for download and installation. While Microsoft claims that this version of Windows is far ahead of anything that we have seen so far, it will be a while before any such claims by the company can be validated. In the meantime it isn’t a bad idea to install and use Windows 10 since the operating system looks indeed promising and so far has received good feedbacks.

If you didn’t receive the automated update from Micrsoft, head over to our post where we explained how you can force download the Windows 10 upgrade on your Windows 7 or 8.1 computer.

If you are using a licenced version of Windows 8.x and Windows 7, these ones can directly be upgraded to the latest version of Windows. However if you are unwilling to directly update your exiting version of Windows and want to have a separate installation on your computer of Windows 10 along with your existing OS, you can make a bootable USD drive of your copy of Windows 10.

Instructions

The process is very simple and involves few easy steps. For this purpose you need a USB drive free of any data on it. Even if there is any data stored on your drive, it will be formatted at the time of creating a bootable device. Windows 10 installation file and setup process requires you to have at least 3 GB of space on your drive, therefore use a USB drive of minimum 4 GB. For creating a bootable drive, download Windows 10 media creation tool. It can be downloaded from the website of Microsoft.

Before you download the media creation tool, first check if you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit version. To check it, follow the path Start> Control Panel> System and Security> System> System Type. You will get the information about the version from here.

Once these prerequisites are in place, run “Media creation tool” that you downloaded from Microsoft website and select “create installation media for another PC.”

Select Language, architecture, and Edition of Windows 10 you’d like to make the bootable USB and press next.

In the next window, you will be prompted to choose installation media which can either be a USB flash drive or iso file to make a bootable DVD.

Select USB flash drive and press next.

Once the computer boots from the USB drive, you will view the Install Windows page. Click Next on it and Install the Windows 10 OS. If your computer already has a licenced Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or a Windows 10 OS, you do not have to enter the product key. Select the option ‘Upgrade this PC now’ and then you may choose either to upgrade the current installation or select another drive and install Windows 10 in which case the selected drive will be formatted. Selection of the drive can be done when you will view the prompt ‘Where do you want to install Windows’.

Creating a bootable USB drive is a simple process and anyone can easily create a bootable device. The same process can be followed to make a bootable DVD but a USB is faster.

August 3, 2015
[How to] Disable User Account (UAC) Setting in Windows 7

March 20, 2015
[How To] group icons of “This PC” as drives and removable storage in Windows 8.1 Update 1
Microsoft introduced the new update which brings back the start button, removed drag and drop windows to close app and added minimize and close button for such operation, shut down and restart button is finally at the right place and windows now boots directly to desktop by default — and there are many other bug fixes and features that has now the potential to makes the modern UI a success for Desktop environment.

Everything was perfect, but Microsoft managed to piss off their users once again by introducing a new File Manager — which is called “This PC” by default, instead of “My Computer” or “Computer” – if that wasn’t enough, they decided not to offer users to sort their hard disk drives and removable devices separately like they used to do it in previous Operating System.

Windows users are so much attached to the traditional way to interact with their PCs, but when Microsoft tries to move their couch, it tends to piss off some of them because not everyone likes someone else making changes to the way they interact with things in their life. But, fret not! You can have your old Explorer back by following some simple steps.

A developer designed a set of tweaks that can bring back the old File Manager back in the game, which has tweakable settings. Tihiy at msfn designed a software that uses Windows 8 and Windows 7 Shell Extension, that can undo “improvements” to file browsing made in newer Windows version.

Have a look at the before and after effect:

Before

After

Instructions:
- Download OldNewExplorer.
- Extract the files, and double click on OldNewExplorerCfg.exe.
- A new window will pop up with the following options. You can select the options as shown in the image below (recommended), or if you wish you can add some other features according to your preference.
- Click on Install and close the window.
- Restart the Explorer.exe or reboot computer to apply changes.
- Done.
April 5, 2014
Your ATM machine is still using Windows XP and here’s why it is a bad thing!

You must have heard that Microsoft is going to end their extended support for Windows XP in April 2014 while it might be significant for the general users to upgrade to the latest OS by Microsoft or move to the open source Linux OS, but it is an entirely different scenario for banks — why?

You would be amazed to know that roughly 95 percent of ATMs in the world are running Windows XP — and it is about to become an expensive problem. This is where banks will have to take crucial steps to decide what they can do best to ensure the security of their users by choosing one of the options they have — i) Upgrade to the latest OS or move to Linux environment (which is free and open source Operating system) or ii) To pay Microsoft to keep providing the extended security updates for Windows XP.

Of these two options, the second one is easier and cheaper for banks as they won’t require anything but to pay the company to keep tracking the security holes in the OS and make sure it is secure enough for the transactions through ATM machines.

Machine designer NCR says that only a third of banks will upgrade their ATMs to a newer OS before official XP support ends on April 8th, leaving many institutions little choice but to pay Microsoft for an extended contract if they still want support.

Your bank might end up collecting the share of this expense from you, as the estimate suggests that bug UK firms might have to pay up to $100 million each to make the leap.

March 15, 2014