Since its creation, over 40 years ago, The BIOS has been the tool through which we can manage our computer’s hardware. And the thing is that if we would like to choose which device to initialize during the booting process, configure RAM or graphic card frequency, adjust fan speed, among other things, the only way we have to do all of those is to access the BIOS and change the settings.
Barely 6 years ago and thanks to an important agreement held by the main technology companies, it was decided to replace the BIOS for a new system called UEFI. A new standard that was introduced commercially soon after and that offers various benefits in comparison to the BIOS.
Mobility, work in the cloud, mobile devices, telecommuting; all of them, among many others, are concepts that have become increasingly common elements in our daily lives, whether it’s while moving in our home or professional environment.
As time passes, regular users of technology, whether in desktop environments or those focused on mobile devices, have been looking for ways to work with all their products in a more centralized way. Evidently the Cloud has been taken as base, thanks to different services using Internet, dealing with lighter devices and applications that allow greater mobility and having all of them, at both software and hardware levels, as unified as possible.
Because of this in the middle of last year 2015 Microsoft, as you all know, made available to users the latest version of its popular operating system, Windows 10. From the beginning, the company has tried with this launch to create a “Windows 10 environment” that allows its clients to work with all their data on all types of devices based on the same system and from anywhere, facilitating their access through PCs, platforms and, again, through the Cloud. However, so far, it has not satisfied the expectations that were initially set on this project.
However there is another environment that is growing exponentially, although somewhat slower on the old continent, Chrome OS, an alternative open source operating system from Google that in the future aims to become a direct competitor of Windows. If something characterizes this proposal is precisely its lightness, good performance and being multi platform; that is to say, it covers a large part of the needs of the current users. In addition, now that manufacturers are launching interesting products specially designed for this free platform and it has already begun its compatibility with Android apps, it is expected that its breakthrough in the near future will be much greater.
Will we see a Windows 10 Cloud vs. Chrome OS confrontation?
For some time now the people at Redmond have been trying to make PC manufacturers ignore Chrome OS, something that although they have achieved until now, it’s beginning to change, so it is expected that Microsoft will have to try something new to not be left behind in some environments. This is the thought behind the arrival of Windows 10 Cloud, a new variant of the popular operating system, namely a simplified version of the original Windows focused on the cloud and designed to run all kinds of applications from the company’s official store on all types of devices, in addition to a lower cost for users and even possibly free for PCmanufacturers.
As we have talked about several times in recent weeks, in the month of April Microsoft plans to release to all users who now use Windows 10, the expected by many Creators Update, which, as it has been speculated for some time, will come full of new features.
A good part of these have been already revealed thanks to the users participating in the Insider program of the firm and have already been commented, although one of the latest to arrive at the mentioned program is precisely one of the more interesting new features to a good part of the community. Microsoft has been aware that its latest version of Windows is already preferred by most PC gamers around the world, and they wanted to go a step further.
To protect our computer against viruses or a defective software this is best weapon. In just a few steps it allows us to restore the computer to a previous state and everything goes back to normal. This time we are going to show you how to enable system restore in Windows 10. It’s a quick process, without any further effort.
It’s a feature that few users value when having to deal with any threat. Obviously, we have to say that its use expose the computer to certain risk of losing information. This will depend on the frequency in which the restore points are created and the frequency in which we decide to use them. The more distant to the present day it’s more probable to happen. We also have to mention that enabling it will impact in the available storage capacity, although that’s something we can configure during the enabling process and once functioning.
How to enable system restore in Windows 10
In first place, we have to look for the configuration menu of this function. Since Windows 10 is organized differently than other versions of Redmond operative systems, let’s turn to Cortana. Writing “restore point” it should appear as first option “Create a restore point”. By selecting it, it will open a window in the tab that has what we are looking for. For those who want to look for it, it’s found in the System Properties window under the system protection tab, as you can see in the next image:
The filtration of the 14997 Build does not stop bringing us surprises in the way of new functions. The day before yesterday we found that Windows 10 will include a new function to filter blue light, and a few hours ago a Twitter user by the name of @h0x0d, know for the veracity of their filtrations, has explored this build of Windows 10 and found a curious novelty: a file by the name of ‘’gamemode.dll’’, that lets us understand that this Game Mode will come in the Creators Update in the coming spring.
What can Microsoft do to improve performance?
Half of the users of Steam use Windows 10, which is why adding a Game Mode may suppose a coming improvement, but; what margin of handling does Microsoft have to improve the performance in a computer when you’re gaming by simply introducing a Game Mode? For this, we will analyze the components on which the performance of a game depend on: Processor, Graphic Card, RAM Memory, and Storage Unit.
Beforehand, we must imagine what Game Mode will do in Windows 10. There are two possible paths. First, we come across a Mode that gives priority to the execution of Games over Programs, how some utilities function already, and actually serve no purpose. The other option is that Microsoft introduces a real improvement at the Operative System level, seeing as it has access to all levels of software, doing something similar to what an Xbox One does, where the console works with an optimized 3 to 1 Operational System.
When it comes to the Processor, it is rare to find a game that forces it to 100% capacity. If you have an i5 or i7 that is less than three years old, it is probable that your processor has never reached 100% load while gaming.This is why closing processes when gaming has low impact on performance.
Virtual memory is a technique used by operating systems to access a greater amount of memory than the physically available, resorting to alternative storage solutions when the installed RAM is exhausted. In this article we will learn how it works and what we must do to configure it optimally.
As many readers know, computers use RAM to store the files and data needed by both the operating system and the software that we are running; its high performance guarantees optimum operation but, sooner or later, it always ends up filling. It is at this moment when Windows needs to resort to virtual memory.
The most important multi-channel sound technologies worldwide are the well-known DTS and Dolby. First came DTS and Dolby Digital in terms of 5.1 sound technologies, followed by DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD that added 7.1 sound and were only losslessly supported with HDMI wiring. The latest iterations of both companies are DTS: X and Dolby Atmos.
DTS: X has taken longer to hit the market, having started to be available for the first time this summer, while Dolby Atmos has been on the market for some time. Both technologies create virtual environments capable of mixing sounds vertically and horizontally, which improves the positioning of sounds in a 3D space in environments such as video games or movies.
Dolby Atmos to hit PC and Xbox One next year
Dolby Atmos basically creates a 3D 360º sound experience thanks to its system that organizes each sound individually, divided into ‘objects’. In previous systems the sound was assigned to a specific channel, whereas Dolby Atmos allocates the sound within a three-dimensional XYZ space. The amplifier reads the information and places the sound where it corresponds, being able to operate from two loudspeakers up to 64 in cinemas.
The free upgrade program to Windows 10 from computers with a valid license of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will end on July 29, as recently recalled Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi. If the strategy doesn’t change, to get Windows 10 from July 30 on, you will have to either purchase a license (119 dollars) …
I wonder how many times I’ve heard people complain that they can’t boot their Linux Live USB flash drives, or can’t install this or another operating system. I myself have cursed some devices more than once for only having EFI boot.
The GPT format has certainly brought issues but also obvious advantages. The latest editions of Windows 10 are compatible and improve things like boot and safety performance.
Many factory devices come preinstalled with this partition system that reduces boot speeds, especially between the time the BIOS starts and the system boot begins. Up to four times faster (we have seen a boost from 2.5 seconds with MBR to only 1.2 seconds with an average device with a not very modern bios but consistent with this system).
To ensure that Windows partitions our disk in GPT mode we have to activate any of our BIOS’ fast-boot modes and activate the Secure Boot. For that we’ll need a UEFI compatible bios. It is not that rare, nor that modern, my testing device for this trick uses this type of bios and it’s a Core i3 Sandy Bridge Socket 1155.
For me this is a problem because I use a machine in console mode connected to a TV by streaming, and every time the machine in question booted up, I skipped an error message of locked screen (specifically with the Steam Streaming system). Luckily, there is a simple method to prevent this.
We just need to open the System Configuration, search Account Setup, Sign-in Options and activate the option “never” under the heading: “Require Sign-in”. Now, when the device enters suspension or hibernation mode, either manually or automatically, you will not be asked to enter a password.
